More UK holidaymakers are flying
home from Tunisia after the government advised them to leave the country
amid fears of another terror attack.
Thomas Cook and Monarch Airlines expect to fly more than 2,000 people home over the weekend.
Tunisia declared a state of emergency after an Islamist gunman killed 38 people on a beach in Sousse on 26 June.
Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid said he "regretted" the UK government's decision but said "we understand".
He
said the country had done everything it could to protect foreigners,
with 100,000 security personnel being deployed to protect the country
and prevent new attacks, including 3,000 dedicated to protecting
beaches, hotels and archaeological sites.
The new travel advice has drawn much criticism from British tourists.
Tracey
Caburn, from Pontefract in West Yorkshire, who returned from Tunisia
with her mother and sister said: "It's a disgrace. We felt safe. We
didn't feel threatened at all.
"There were guards on the roof,
the gates, the beach. We wanted to stay. If they were going to bring us
home so quickly they should not have let us fly out in the first place." 'Confused and angry': British tourists return home What next for Tunisia holidaymakers?
Hundreds of Britons are due to fly home on Saturday
'Ordered out'
Extra
flights are being laid on across the weekend to evacuate thousands of
British package holidaymakers and hundreds of independent travellers.
The
Foreign Office estimates there are now between 1,000 and 2,000 Britons
left in Tunisia. On Friday the figure stood at 3,000-3,500.
Thomas Cook and Monarch have cancelled all further bookings to Tunisia for the rest of the summer season.
Conservative
MP Crispin Blunt, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee,
which scrutinises the work of the Foreign Office, said the decision
"raised questions".
There are five flights departing Enfidha Airport for the UK on Saturday
The BBC's Jim Muir, at Enfidha Airport, said many tourists felt the decision had been taken suddenly and was not justified.
"They're
angry at the British authorities for suddenly springing this surprise
two weeks after the attack on Sousse - and they're angry that their tour
operators are taking this advisory as an instruction and practically
ordering them out," he said.
Sara Southall, from Staffordshire, said the Foreign Office should have changed its travel advice sooner.
"If
they were still investigating, I think they should have stopped
everyone from travelling until they knew it was safe rather than sending
us out here and then sending us back," she said.
"But obviously, if the decision's been made, I imagine there's a reason why, and I'd rather be safe."
Myles
Roberts said: "[I'm] very, very disappointed. When I left England on
Wednesday there were no problems whatsoever... It's been made quite
clear to us that if we don't leave on these flights we could be stuck
here until October."
Security was stepped in tourist areas in the wake of the attack
Mr Blunt questioned why travel advice was not changed immediately after the attack.
"What
we don't know is the exact intelligence picture of what Philip Hammond
(the foreign secretary) is seeing - but on the basis of what he's said
it raises questions," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Mr Blunt said he intended to question Mr Hammond about the decision when he appears before the committee on 21 July.
Asked if he would be prepared to take his family on holiday to Tunisia, the former minister answered: "Yes." The UK has warned another terror attack in the country was "highly likely".
Mr Hammond said it was "too big a risk" not to act but he hoped the guidance would be downgraded soon.
Ireland, where three of the victims were from, has warned against "all non-essential travel" to Tunisia. Denmark followed suit but Germany and France, which accounts for the largest number of tourists in the country, has not.
Former British ambassador to Libya Oliver Miles told the BBC he was "puzzled" at the decision to repatriate tourists.
"There
clearly is a threat but what puzzles me is that the threat is not
confined to Tunisia and is not confined to the British," he said.
The
Sousse gunman has been identified as Seifeddine Rezgui, who authorities
say had trained in Libya - but the Islamic State group claimed the
attack.
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Tunisia has announced plans to build a wall along its border with Libya to counter the threat from jihadist militants.
It
would stretch 160km (100 miles) inland from the coast, and be completed
by the end of 2015, Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid told state TV.
The gunman who killed 38 people in an attack on a beach resort is believed to have received training in Libya.
Tunisia declared a state of emergency following the attack last month.
The Tunisian army would build the wall, which would have surveillance centres at certain points along it, Mr Essid said.
Authorities
had already tightened security following the Sousse attack, in which 30
Britons were killed, deploying more than 1,400 armed officers at hotels
and beaches.
Last week, Mr Essid told the BBC that the gunman,
Seifeddine Rezgui, had probably trained with the Ansar al-Sharia group
in Libya, though Islamic State (IS) earlier said it was behind the
attack.
Media caption"The time of [police] reaction - this is the problem," Tunisia's PM Habib Essid told Richard Galpin
The BBC's Rana Jawad in the capital, Tunis, says Tunisians do not need a visa to travel to Libya.
Over the last year, IS has set up bases in the east and west of the Libya, which shares a 459km border with Tunisia, she says.
However,
Tunisia's longest land border is with Algeria and militants have also
reportedly been crossing there in recent years, our reporter says.
Eight people have been arrested
on suspicion of collaborating with Rezgui, who was killed after his
shooting spree, and the government says it has uncovered the network
behind the Sousse attack.
In the coming weeks officials are expected to pass a counter-terrorism bill that has been in parliament since early 2014.
The
Sousse attack represented the second blow in three months to Tunisia's
tourism industry, an important sector for the country.
In March, two gunmen killed 22 people at the renowned Bardo museum in Tunis.
Tunisia's prime minister has told
the BBC that the slow response of police to last week's deadly attack on
a tourist resort was a major problem.
On Friday Habib Essid took
part in a minute's silence to remember the 38 people who were killed in
the town of Sousse, south of Tunis, a week ago.
He said he was deeply sorry for the attack, in which 30 Britons died.
Mr Essid said the government believed there was only one gunman, and that he had links to a known terrorist group.
Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Reports
in the British press said the assault took place over almost 35
minutes, and that the gunman was able to return to kill some of the
wounded before the police arrived.
He was eventually shot dead in an alley. Why Tunisia is at risk of attack
'Unacceptable'
"The
time of the reaction - this is the problem," Mr Essid told the BBC's
Richard Galpin. Police had been "blocked everywhere", he added.
Media captionHotel workers have been losing their jobs ever since the attack happened, as Rana Jawad reports
Mr Essid said Tunisia sent its condolences to the British government and to the Queen over the deaths of the British tourists.
"We
feel really sorry about what happened," he said. "They were our guests.
They came to spend their vacation with us, but what happened is a
horror, unacceptable."
The gunman, identified as Seifeddine Rezgui, came onto the beach from the sea either by jet ski or speedboat at about midday.
He
started shooting on the beach, entered the Hotel Imperial Marhaba and
ran out of the front of the hotel before the police shot him dead.
The gunman has been identified as Seifeddine Rezgui
The attacker had travelled to Libya between December 2014 and January 2015, Mr Essid said.
Police are holding eight suspects in custody on suspicion of being directly linked to the attack, which jihadist group Islamic State has claimed. Four others who were held have been released.
The group that planned this attack was also behind the deadly shootings in the Bardo Museum in Tunis in March, Mr Essid added.
As
well as the 30 Britons, other victims of the Sousse attack included
three Irish citizens, two Germans, one Belgian, one Portuguese and one
Russian national.
It was the deadliest attack in Tunisia's recent history.
