Refugees flee Libya into overwhelmed Tunisia

ON THE LIBYA-TUNISIA BORDER - As Tunisia, the epicenter for the wave of anti-government protests that began last month, struggles with its own unrest, it's also dealing with a flood of refugees as people flee the fighting in Libya, CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey reports.

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Tens of thousands held a new protest in Tunisia, Libya's neighbor to the northwest that already ousted its longtime leader, Friday and demanded the resignation of the prime minister. Soldiers fired shots in the air to disperse the crowd. Meanwhile, the desperation that drove many Egyptian workers out of Libya into Tunisia still rules.

At least 5,000 Egyptians have come into Tunisia in the last three days exhausted, traumatized, staggering under as much of their life as they can carry.

The Tunisians hand out bus tickets, fearful that the staging post could become a refugee camp.

Everyone here has a tale of fear. One man said he and some friends hid in a house for eight days, trapped by shooting and street fighting.

All they wanted in Libya was a job. Instead, they got caught in the middle of someone else's war. They escaped through a little luck and sheer determination, but tens of thousands are still trapped as the situation spirals out of control.

"There was gunfire, men with rockets on their shoulders," a man named Sayeed said through a translator. "I saw dead bodies in the street."

Refugees streaming through the border post say the Libyan troops are nervous and rob whomever they please, but that's nothing compared to what these people escaped.