Thank you for the question.
As you mentioned, at the outset of the crisis we were all touched by those images on TV of people lining up to cross the border into Tunisia to escape the violence.
To the extent that one can succeed in humanitarian assistance operations, I think we did have quite a bit of success in responding to the needs of the migrant workers fleeing the crisis. As I mentioned, more than 640,000 migrant workers have fled. They've either been of Egyptian or Tunisian origin or third-country nationals. The situation was certainly precarious in the first few weeks when the flow started to increase.
From a Canadian perspective, CIDA deployed individuals to the borders with Tunisia and Egypt to better understand what the situation was. We put a lot of our initial financing into funding IOM, which was essentially transporting individuals home. For instance, Bangladeshis who were crossing the border from Libya into Tunisia were offered a flight home to escape the violence and to free up the border.
What we didn't want to see was congestion at the border. This crisis could have turned into something quite serious if such congestion had continued and we had been unable to meet the urgent needs of the population, so our first priority was to try to get those people home.
I can say that it was a resounding success. The lineups have diminished considerably. The population movements have reduced to approximately 2,000 people per day, maximum, into Tunisia and Egypt, so I think we're seeing a diminished flow.
We have in place and have funded through our programs the development of camps along the border. Within those camps, there's the provision of food aid and shelter. We've provided funding to the Canadian Red Cross, for instance, to bring tents and other supplies to provision these camps. We have also funded the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to help manage those camps. Of the $10 million allocated to the operation in and outside Libya, a significant proportion has gone to these border regions, because access has been very good.
I must comment that the Tunisian and the Egyptian governments should be commended for their support. It was extremely helpful, particularly the way the Tunisian government stepped in and provided financial resources. The Tunisian Red Crescent Society stepped in immediately and helped its neighbours out.
As I said, this is one of those cases in which, in the midst of what was a real crisis, the system worked. The needs of the affected population were responded to and the mechanisms are in place to continue to respond to those needs. Contingency planning is in place in case the high flow rates that we saw at the outset of the crisis commence again. The capacity is there to respond.