In February this year I went to Libya to write about the calm (as it was then), beautiful city of Tripoli. A week after I returned the uprising began, and the hotel I was staying in, the al-Nasr Rixos, became the home – and later the focus – of the world’s media. When the journalists trapped inside had been safely freed, I wrote a story for al-Jazeera on hotels which have become synonymous with the wars, which has just been published.
When I was in Tunisia last week I travelled to the Libyan border at Ras Jedir, where I met some of the Tunisian volunteers helping the refugees at the vast camp there. This is the story I wrote for the Al Jazeera English website. Photos by Rama Knight.
The recent unrest in the Middle East/North Africa has prompted many of the travel supplements to question whether or not it’s advisable to travel to the region. On Saturday 5th March the Guardian ran a round-up on Middle Eastern destinations, asking just that. I was asked to comment on Libya, where I’d recently travelled (a week before the uprisings there).
All material is copyright © Gail Simmons. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part, by any means, is forbidden without the written consent of the copyright holder.