Egyptian airliner to evacuate students from Bucharest after they fled Ukraine

Egyptian airliner to evacuate students from Bucharest after they fled Ukraine
Egypt has sent an airliner to evacuate its students from the Romanian capital Bucharest, after they managed to cross the border, fleeing the war in Ukraine.
2 min read
Egypt - Cairo
01 March, 2022
An EgyptAir airliner will evacuate Egyptian students who fled to Romania from Ukraine. [Getty]

An EgyptAir airliner will evacuate hundreds of Egyptian students from the Romanian capital Bucharest on Tuesday, after they fled Ukraine, said Egypt's Cabinet Spokesman Nader Saad in a Facebook post.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi had earlier ordered the national carrier to send a plane to evacuate the students, previously stranded in Ukraine, following the Russian invasion of the Eastern European country earlier last week, the statement added.

Over the weekend, local Egyptian news outlets reported that 1,000 Egyptians had been on their way from Ukraine to neighbouring Romania and Poland, while only 80 managed to return to Egypt.

Egyptian embassies had urged citizens in the western parts of Ukraine to head to the border crossings with Romania, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia to return to Egypt through these countries, local state-run Ahram Online reported on Saturday, citing the ministry of emigration and Egyptian expatriates' affairs.

The war has raged to a lesser extent in western parts of Ukraine, if compared with the rest of the country, and especially with regions that border Russia.

As for students living in the central and southern cities, Minister of Emigration and Egyptian Expatriates' Affairs Nabila Makram told MBC Misr satellite TV channel on Saturday that they "need to stick to their homes for their own safety."

Based on official figures, around 6,000 Egyptian nationals were living in Ukraine prior to the invasion, 3,000 of them are university students.