Terrifying reports are emerging from the north African country of migrant workers being abandoned by their employers and being forced to bunker down as looters, bandits and mercenaries rampage.

An estimated 100,000 workers from the Philippines and Bangladesh remain stuck in Libya more than a week after the violence erupted, with their governments unable to mount quick or extensive evacuation programmes for them.

"The protesters shoot people on sight; it's not safe to go out. We don't have food and money. We are almost starving. Nobody can imagine how dangerous the situation is," Bangladeshi worker Kabir Hossain told AFP by telephone.

Hossain, 24, said he and 17 other Bangladeshi construction workers were trapped inside a Libyan Desert work site after their employers abandoned them.

"The response of our government has come too late. For nine days the violence has escalated and we haven't seen a blueprint for evacuations."

The plight of the estimated 60,000 Bangladeshis in Libya appeared even bleaker with the government in Dhaka saying it had no firm evacuation plans for them.