Students to be evacuated out to Jeddah

From TheStar online

KUALA LUMPUR: The government has issued a directive to bring Malaysian students by air or sea out of Egypt due to the worsening anti-government uprising in that country.

“Some immediate measures will be taken to bring the students out of Egypt,” Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak told Bernama.

He said the government would bring the students out to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and to temporarily house them at the Tabung Haji Centre there until flights were available for them to return to Malaysia.

“The government has communicated with the Saudi Arabian government for our students to be allowed to be brought in to Jeddah.”

Najib said the government would provide more information on the matter to the students and their parents today.

So far, 11,319 students had registered with the Malaysian embassy in Cairo.

Najib said the decision was made after receiving a report on the situation in Egypt from the Malaysian delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister A. Kohilan Pillay and the prime minister’s political secretary Datuk Sahlan Ismail.

Kohilan said AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines will be flying the students to Jeddah by today in addition to two Royal Malaysian Air Force C-130 transport aircraft.

“We have facilities in Jeddah to house the students until the situation changes. We will not bring all of them back to Malaysia because there are just too many of them,” he added.