(Photo by Adham Youssef)
Yemenis in Egypt continued their daily protests at the Yemeni Embassy in Cairo, accusing officials of “lying” concerning the exact date of deportation.
Protesters gathered Sunday in front of the embassy chanting against the ambassador, amid a heavy presence of riot police.
One of the protesters said: “This is the third time the embassy promised us to secure flights to Saudi Arabia to cross to Yemen.” The protester added that many of them went to the travel agencies to confirm bookings “to discover that the embassy didn’t contact the airlines”.
Armoured Personnel Carriers and masked police officers surrounded the vicinity of the embassy in the neighbourhood of Dokki.
Since the start of Operation “Decisive Storm”, Yemenis in Cairo have been lining up in front of the embassy seeking help to return home.
“I have been coming here for three weeks now. The officials are treating us badly. One of our friends lost a relative. His family wanted to bury him in Yemen, but due to lack of support from the diplomatic mission in Cairo, he was buried here,” one protester said.
After almost an hour of angry chants against the ambassador, a delegation surrounded by high ranking police officers read out a statement, but was rebuffed by the angry protesters.
The statement, which Daily News Egypt received a copy of, reads that “the Yemeni Foreign Minister ordered the country’s ambassador to the Arab League to exert more effort to arrange the necessary steps to deport our brothers who are stuck in Egypt”.
It added that trips will be planned by the Yemeni Airline Agency to land in Saudi Arabia, and then to cross by land to Yemen.
Before the embassy official completed reading the statement, protesters threw water bottles, forcing him to retreat into the embassy.
