A Gaddafi in a ski suit and refugees with no where to go.

After a week of filming refugees, I feel a mental tiredness from seeing and hearing the same horrible stories over and over. It's not that I have reached a point of not caring, not at all. As a journalist, we have to keep a certain distance from the story or we couldn't do our job. But we are humans too and you can't help feeling very sad for these poor people who have lost everything, yet smile. So we smile and don't let things get to you... and that is mentally fatiguing.

Where are is the ski lift?

Yesterday. Gaddafi's son, Hanibal Gaddafi arrived at the border here. Sadly we missed him by 10 minutes. There was no camera present, but a Swiss photographer, Guillaume Briquet, took pictures and gave us some, which we sent to Euronews. He didn't say anything to the press, but looked like he just got back from a ski trip in Switzerland, dressed in a white ski suit and dark glasses.

This morning, it's back to the Choucha camp. The report is that the Tunisian's are handling things fine. The international organisations present are just crisis planning if things really get bad in Libya and another wave of refugees arrives. 

Sanitation is a big problem now in Choucha camp.

Filming in the camp, I met Daniel (his christian name, he tells me). Daniel's situation is maybe worse than other refugees because he was a clandestine worker in Libya from Burkina Faso. "In November, police came to our apartment and took us to prison," relates Daniel. "They said they would let us go if we paid 300 Dinar (around 200 euros). Some paid, but they didn't let us go. We stayed there two months and then they took us to another prison where we stayed one month. Finally they let us go and we arrived here last night."

A Bangladechi refugee takes a shower.

They are eight Burkinabes in the Choucha camp Daniel tells me. The Egyptians and Vietnamese left or are leaving. The Bangladeshis, some 13,000 out of a total of 16,000 refugees in the camp, are hoping to leave soon. The eight Burkinabes, clandestine workers, will probably have to go back the way they came... across the Sahara. "It was a very tough trip here," remembers Daniel. "Many died."

Ras Jedir border with Libya

After spending most of the night filming and editing a story on refugees finally taking a plane home, we headed to the border this morning to see who is left. As we drove to the border, a tide of humans walked along the dusty road toward the Choucha refugee camp. They were all Bengladeshis. These poor people have had to watch while others, Egyptians, Vietnamese and others, take buses to the airport and a plane ride back home. There is no bus for the Bangladeshis, the Ghanians, Malgach and others, whose countries are too poor or can`t be bothered to come and get them. "I`m just following the others," says one young refugee, who looks like he should be in school. "Everyone else is leaving. No one is helping the Bangladeshis."

In the evening we went back to the border to see what was going on. It was mostly empty. A family of Bangladeshi was crossing the border with two little girls dressed with beads in their hair. I wondered what they may have been through as Gaddafi`s troops have sealed the border now and there are some 12,000 people wanting to flee into Tunisia. The Libyan side looked abandonned. Even the green flags were gone. The Tunisian side is strewn with debris, blankets and a few broken suitcases.

A Bangladeshi refugee succombs to exhaustion.

It is a bit frustrating as a journalist here because we all want to get into Libya, but it is at the least very dangerous and probably impossible as Gaddafi tries to hold on to power. I think about those risking their lives to take pictures from their phones as hundreds of professionals are sitting here waiting for a chance to get in. The dream is to be there when the Libyan people finally take power and as their neighbors in Egypt and Tunisia, make their voices heard. But they are up against a madman. Can they do it on their own?

Ras Jedir on the Libyan border

They wait in apparent good humour given all they've been through. Over 70,000 have passed this border crossing and thousands are still waiting. At left is a picture of those still waiting to pass into Tunisia escaping fighting, robbery and agression from Gaddafi's troops. Many have spent days to get here. Most are Egyptian as well as many Bangladeshi and Vietnamese.

As they trickle through, the Tunisian put up an heroic effort to distribute food, water and blankets. It is very cold at night here in the desert. We stay in a hotel without heat and I sleep with blankets and a coat feeling very priviledged when I think of all those still waiting to cross the border. International help is just beginning to arrive as this potential human catastrophy mounts.

Camps are spreading out as thousands carry all their belongings across into a field and set up tents from the United Nations Refugee Agency. The Tunisian army and nacient government are trying their best to organise this human tide. Along the road, we have seen private cars filled with bread and mattresses for the refugees. I think the Tunisians are very proud that the Arab revolution started in their country and they are being very generous to help their neighbors. The Tunisian flag is even carried by some refugees as a sign of freedom.