A massive throng of refugees and asylum seekers have been attempting to escape the violence in Libya, with numbers topping 140,000 so far. Humanitarian workers in the region are advising that the shared Tunisian border is decending into chaos and becoming impossible to control.

In addition, aid workers are being held back from the western area of the country as reports of hospital patients and others being executed by gunmen flood in. Relief efforts are being hampered by the sheer volume of people trying to get into Tunisia, and officials have stated that up to 75,000 have left Libya in the last nine days alone. "The situation is reaching crisis point," warned U.N. refugee agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming.

In addition to the refugees flooding over into Tunisia, a further 69,000 have escaped into Egypt in the past ten days. It is understood that most of these are Egyptian nationals who have returned to their home country in order to seek refuge from the violence and have already been taken to other towns and cities, according to Egyptian authorities.

"With thousands of migrants still awaiting authorization to enter Tunisia, there is an urgent need to decongest the border area which lacks adequate facilities to host large numbers of people," IOM's Tunisia mission chief Marc Petzold said.

Several world leaders have spoken out against Libya’s ruler, Moammar Gadhafi, and his repeated refusal to stand down from power. A nofly zone over Libya has been put in place by many countries.

Reported by Michael Jordison.

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