Egypt Unrest – MFAT Media Update 10.30 am - 2 February 2011

The unrest and demonstrations in Egypt continue.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade continues to advise against all travel to Egypt due to the extreme risk to security. Visit www.safetravel.govt.nz for the full advisory.

Advice for New Zealanders in Egypt

• New Zealanders wanting to depart Egypt should register with the New Zealand Embassy (+20 101 061 163) in Cairo so consular staff based at the airport can facilitate departure from Egypt, if required.

• All New Zealanders currently in Egypt are advised to stay indoors throughout the day and night unless they have confirmed departure arrangements in place and it is safe for them to travel to the airport.

• Curfews should be observed and you will need to check in for flights five hours before departure

• New Zealanders in Egypt are strongly advised to register their details with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on the safetravel website - www.safetravel.co.nz

• New Zealanders with friends and family in Egypt should attempt to make contact with them directly in the first instance and if there are serious concerns about their safety they should contact MFAT on 04 439 8000.

General Update

• There are now 264 New Zealanders registered as being in Egypt (down from 299 yesterday) as a number of New Zealanders have now departed the country. MFAT is also getting a small number of new registrations.

• Early this morning 178 of those New Zealanders registered were contemplating leaving Egypt.

• 59 (of the 178) have now departed.

• 119 (of the 178) remain in country. 26 have been offered flights by MFAT for the next 3 days (1-3 Feb). 18 have accepted flight offers; 8 have declined the flight offered. The majority of the remainder have indicated that they do not wish to leave at this stage.

• Embassy advice and discussions with New Zealand consular partners (Australia, UK, Canada & the US) suggest that commercial capacity is available for people who wish to get out though it is difficult to make bookings from within Egypt due to problems with internet connections.

• The New Zealand Embassy in Cairo is open and operating 24/7 to assist New Zealanders. Embassy staff are in contact with registered New Zealanders. Communications at times are hampered by intermittent outages.

• Embassy staff are at Cairo International Airport providing assistance to New Zealanders.

• New Zealand is closely coordinating with Australia, the UK, Canada around evacuation planning, and on-the-ground at Cairo International Airport.

A further update will be issued later today – prior if there is major new information

ENDS

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