Governmental Efforts to Bring Back Australians Stranded in Cairo

Added by David Sandercock on February 4, 2011

The Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Russ stated that he asked his counterpart in Egypt to support and help with the evacuation of Australians who are stranded in a hotel from Cairo.

A number of 27 Australians were unable to leave Egypt on an evacuation plane sent by the federal government because the violent demonstrations in Cairo have worsened.

According to the Foreign Minister Rudd, the Australians are currently stranded in Cairo’s Conrad Hotel after another 92 were safely evacuated.  The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade had made a statement today saying that the remaining Australians at the hotel from Cairo will reach the airport as soon as it will be safe enough to transport them there.

The Department also stated that the federal government has the necessary means to support Australians who want to leave Egypt in the upcoming days. Both Australian diplomats and journalists have become targets in the eyes of Egyptian demonstrators as violence on the streets of Cairo has become more and more acute.

Foreign Minister Rudd spoke to Sky News and sad that journalists being harassed in Egypt is unacceptable. He said that consular staff has also been targeted, and that there were some “worrying moment” in which it was not known whether the staff would safely return to the Australian embassy in Egypt.