in this photo released by Britain's Ministry of Defense, civilians disembark from one of two Royal Air Force C130 Hercules that evacuated more than 150 civilians from desert locations south of Benghazi, at Malta's international airport, February 27, 2011
The U.N. refugee agency says almost 100,000 people have fled Libya into neighboring Egypt and Tunisia in the past week to escape a deadly anti-government uprising.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres appealed Sunday to the international community to provide quick and generous assistance to Egypt and Tunisia to cope with what he calls a "humanitarian emergency."
The U.N. agency says Tunisia has reported the entry of 40,000 people from Libya since February 20, and Egypt has recorded 55,000 people crossing the Libyan border since February 19.
The UNHCR says most of those fleeing to the neighboring states are Egyptians and Tunisians, while the remainder include other foreigners, mainly Asian migrant workers, and several thousand Libyans. It says U.N. emergency teams are working with Egyptian and Tunisian authorities to support the evacuees.
Elsewhere, Mediterranean ports are overflowing with thousands of other foreigners escaping Libya's unrest.
A Greek ship that picked up 2,900 Chinese citizens in Benghazi arrived in Crete Saturday, while two other Greek vessels left the Libyan port carrying another 4,200 Chinese bound for the Greek island. Another Chinese-chartered vessel arrived in Malta carrying 2,200 Chinese evacuees.
China also was chartering Chinese and foreign planes to fly Chinese citizens out of the Libyan capital, Tripoli and to bring them home from other destinations in north Africa and Europe.
In another development, British military transport planes evacuated foreign oil workers from the Libyan desert in a secretive operation Saturday. British Defense Secretary Liam Fox says two C-130 Hercules planes picked up about 150 civilians - including Britons and other foreigners - from desert sites and brought them to the Mediterranean island nation of Malta.
British media described the evacuation as a daring and covert operation conducted by British special forces. The British government has faced criticism at home for being too slow to help hundreds of British oil workers stuck in desert facilities with dwindling supplies of food and water.
Britain also temporarily shut its embassy in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, after evacuating diplomatic personnel from the city. Canada and France did the same.
The United States closed its Tripoli embassy on Friday.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.