UNITED Nations staff and their dependants based in Egypt started arriving on the island yesterday as citizens of the neighbouring country have also asked to be allowed in, officials said.
The UN has decided to pull out “less essential” personnel from Egypt, leaving behind a skeleton staff.
The first flight carrying 148 UN staff and their dependants arrived in Larnaca yesterday at around 3pm, followed by a second flight at 5.30pm with 117 passengers.
The evacuees were put on buses and transferred to hotels.
The UN had scheduled four flights to evacuate some 600 people from Egypt; but it was unlikely that all four would be carried out yesterday due to the onset of night-time and the curfew there.
“I doubt we will have all four at this stage,” said Rolando Gomez, the UN spokesman in Cyprus.
The first group of UN employees and their families arrived aboard a Boeing 747 inbound flight from Cairo; the second aboard a Mcdonnell Douglas plane that had taken off from Larnaca earlier in the day, touched down at the Egyptian capital and then made the journey back to Cyprus.
Air traffic to and from Egypt has been reduced to a trickle since civil unrest erupted in the neighbouring country last week. It has been easier for planes to land at Cairo rather than depart.
A third plane with UN personnel bound for Larnaca was expected to be cleared for takeoff from Cairo last night, but details of its takeoff time were sketchy.
In addition, there was a chance that a charter flight would arrive at Larnaca ferrying over 100 US citizens, said Hermes Airports spokesman Adamos Aspris.
The United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) has assigned around 50 personnel to Larnaca airport to provide security for arriving UN staff from Egypt.
Gomez said the evacuation was being coordinated from the UN’s headquarters in New York. Some of the UN personnel and the diplomats posted to Cairo would remain there, he said.
At the same time, the Cypriot foreign ministry said its embassy in Cairo had been contacted by Egyptian nationals with relatives on the island or have friends or relatives here with Cypriot citizenship, and who want to flee the country.
Andreas Zenonos, the ministry’s Director of Consular Affairs said: “Cyprus is becoming a transit point.”
Regarding Cypriot nationals residing in Egypt and wishing to leave, Zenonos said most have done so, but added that the Foreign Ministry is receiving further such requests.
Responding to complaints heard about Cyprus’ diplomatic mission in Egypt, Zenonos said the embassy was currently operating at skeleton staff with just three officers. The Cyprus Embassy in Cairo was open normally from 8am to 3pm.
The Foreign Ministry is for the time being not considering closing the embassy, and Cypriot diplomats will stay in the Egyptian capital unless the unrest there escalates.
Meanwhile the Egyptian community in Cyprus, in cooperation with other migrant communities, will today hold a gathering and march in Nicosia in a show of solidarity with their compatriots. Participants will gather in front of the Omeriye Mosque and then march towards the Egyptian Embassy. The event is being supported by the pro-immigrant group KISA.
