The group included West Africans, Chinese and Filipinos, the Geneva-based officials said, quoting an African worker.

The officials said food supplies were low, illness was spreading and fear of reprisals against foreigners was keeping them indoors.

Meanwhile, thousands of foreign workers continued to swamp this border town between Libya and Tunisia.

Bangladeshis washed themselves with bottles of drinking water and Egyptians fought over bread handed out by aid workers as thousands fleeing Libya took refuge in this town that didn’t have enough toilets, beds or food to meet the needs of a growing humanitarian crisis.

The stench of feces made the air uncomfortable to breathe, trash was everywhere and many of the tens of thousands of migrant workers had been stranded for several days and had no money.

Around 100,000 people fleeing have crossed the border into Tunisia since February 20, Tunisia’s regional Red Crescent representative Monji Slim said.

He said the figure included 35,000 Egyptians and more than 10,000 from Bangladesh.

‘Many will die’

The Tunisian Army has set up tent camps to help house the refugees in this border town, but not nearly enough for everyone.

“We have spent two nights on these blankets on the ground here,” said Arif Rahman, a 28-year-old Bangladeshi who worked as a carpenter for a Korean company in Libya for two years. “We are afraid it will rain on us, and we are so cold.”

“We are afraid that if we stay here for a long time many people will die, because we do not have showers, and we are also getting sick,” he said.

About 12,000 people have been crossing the Tunisian border daily this week, Slim said.

“The biggest problem is the logistics. It’s where to put people, where to put camps and also the medical concerns,” said Slim. “We have seen an outbreak of skin diseases and 15 cases of eye infections.”

Many are frozen

Tens of thousands more were massing at the borders just inside Libya, perched in camps or roughing it outside while awaiting evacuation, safe passage or asylum. Those who did so braved cold weather, lack of food and water, and other dangers.

Thousands more were frozen in place, fearful of the growing violence.

International Organization for Migration officials said almost 200,000 people have now crossed from Libya into Tunisia, Egypt and Niger.

The pace of exodus has picked up last week after protests against longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi turned into armed clashes that have brought the country to the brink of civil war.

To help deal with the crisis, Europe, the United States and the United Nations were donating more than $30 million.

President Barack Obama said he has approved the use of US military aircraft and civilian flights to get people out.

“The violence must stop. Moammar Gadhafi has lost the legitimacy to lead and he must leave,” Obama said.

Senior US defense officials said flights from Ramstein Air Base in Germany were being prepared, and planes could leave as early as Friday for the first evacuation mission.

On Thursday, migration officials began evacuating 5,500 foreign workers from the eastern Libyan port of Benghazi, the second largest city, which is now held by rebels opposed to Gadhafi’s regime.

They said nine flights provided by Britain and the UN refugee agency based in Geneva were flying nearly 1,700 people on Thursday from Djerba, Tunisia, to Cairo.

Those efforts will help bring another 2,250 stranded Egyptians home over the next five days as France lends two planes to the effort.

‘We want to go home’

At Benghazi’s port and surrounding warehouses, the first to be airlifted out were about 200 women, children and medical patients. Evacuees-in-waiting were mostly from Bangladesh, India and Sudan, and a few from Syria and Ghana.

Migration officials said many refugees were afraid of being shot in the fighting, or didn’t know there was help waiting at the Egyptian border.

And many, particularly those from sub-Saharan African, are undocumented, making a border crossing more difficult. Libyan port authorities, out from under Gadhafi’s yoke, also were trying to help.

In Ras Adjir, many migrants occupied an abandoned building, sleeping in half-constructed rooms for some protection from the cold at night. During the day outside, they turned blankets from aid workers into makeshift tents to take shade from the sun.

Volunteers set up a table, and offered migrants the use of satellite phones to make brief calls home. Closer to the border, Egyptian men held small demonstrations calling for their government to bring them home.

The situation facing Abdulrahman Mittoo, a 27-year-old Bangladeshi migrant, exemplified the predicament facing many of the stranded.

He said the Korean company he worked for didn’t give workers their most recent paycheck, and banks were closed when he fled. He spent three days sleeping on the Libyan side of the border, and then has spent the last couple days sleeping on the ground in Tunisia.

“We have no embassy in Tunisia, and our government has had no contact with us at all,” he said. “We are so tired. We just want to go home.”