The US Embassy in Cairo has issued Warden Message #5 dated January 20, 2011 informing American citizens in Egypt that the US Government is making preparations for their voluntary evacuation to unnamed locations in Europe:
The U.S. Embassy in Cairo informs U.S. citizens in Egypt who wish to depart that the Department of State is making arrangements to provide transportation to safehaven locations in Europe. This assistance will be provided on a reimbursable basis, as required by U.S. law. U.S. citizens who travel on US government –arranged transport will be expected to make their own onward travel plans from the safehaven location. Flights to evacuation points will begin departing Egypt on Monday, January 31.
Persons interested in departing Egypt via USG-chartered transportation should contact the US Department of State and Embassy Cairo by sending an email to EgyptEmergencyUSC@state.gov or by calling 1-202-501-4444.Please provide the following information:Name, age, place of birth and U.S. passport numberAny special medical needs or circumstancesImmediate family members (spouses and children) who are not U.S. citizens must be documented for entry into the safehaven country and/or U.S., if that is your final destination.Travelers are permitted only one piece of luggage per person. Pets cannot be evacuated.
We are not sure exactly when is the tourist season over there. But Egypt is a key international tourist destination, with over 300,000 American visitors annually. A publicly available report from 2009 indicates that the resident American citizen population in the country is approximately 35,000.
The American Citizen Services unit there faces a growing caseload of parental child abductions; destitute and abandoned American citizen mothers with minor children; Internet marriages and associated claims of domestic violence; mentally ill American citizens; property disputes and others. Evacuations are always challenging but in Egypt, it may be challenging and also complicated with family-related issues.
Read our post on the US Embassy Tunis evacuation of private American citizens to Morocco here with links to the official regulations.
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7 FAM 1800 APPENDIX D CRISIS EVACUATION LOANS AND EVACUATION DOCUMENTATION - Download PDF
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