( AFP Photo)
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on Monday in which it revealed the Egyptian embassy in Damascus will resume the evacuation of Egyptians from Syria starting Tuesday. The statement was made by the Egyptian chargé d’affaires in Damascus, Alaa Abdul-Aziz, who said a new regiment of flights leaving from Damascus and Lebanon has been made available for those wishing to flee the civil war.
Abdul Aziz said there is a group of 60 civilians, 28 of which are set to leave by land to Lebanon before boarding a flight to Egypt. The rest will be flown directly from Damascus to Cairo.
The embassy said it has managed to produce documents for those who have lost their passports as a result of being in areas with heavy fighting, and is paying for the journey of 24 Egyptians who are unable to do so.
Abdul Aziz explained that the land-based evacuation to Lebanon is being carried out in coordination between the Egyptian embassies in Damascus and Beirut, and the convoy comes at the expense of the embassies. He stressed in the statement that the embassy in Damascus attaches great important to the family unit, adding it would facilitate travel for non-Egyptians married to Egyptian citizens.
Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, the embassy in Damascus says more than 5,000 Egyptians have left Syria.
In February the ministry announced it would work with the embassy in Damascus to repatriate its citizens from Syria. The ministry said it would have convoys twice a month transport Egyptians to Beirut, where they could board a flight to Egypt.
It is currently uncertain to what degree the initial programme was implemented, as the ministry was unavailable for comment.
