JERUSALEM – Catholic Relief Services’ international staff and
their families in Cairo were evacuated as pro-democracy
demonstrations entered their seventh day.
“Our current thinking is that we will be out for no more than
two days,” CRS country representative Jason Berlanger said in
a phone interview with Catholic News Service Jan. 31 as he
was on his way to Cairo’s international airport with his wife
and two children.
He said he was traveling with two other American staff
members and their dependents and the group planned to fly to
Amman, Jordan. However, flights to the Jordanian capital were
unavailable late Jan. 30 and were not expected to resume
soon, according to news reports.
About 25 Egyptian staff members of the U.S. bishops’ aid and
development agency remained at home, Berlanger said. One
Palestinian staff member was scheduled to leave for Amman as
well, he said.
The CRS office was closed for the Egyptian Friday-Saturday
weekend Jan. 28 and 29, but did not reopen Jan. 30, Berlanger
said.
“The office is closed today (Jan. 31) and tomorrow (Feb. 1)
and we are monitoring the situation,” Berlanger said.
“It is just a wait and see situation,” he said.
Military personnel and armed community guard groups checked
identification cards as the staffers left their Cairo
neighborhood, said Berlanger, who described traffic on the
road to the airport as normally heavy and appeared partly to
be made up of Americans and other internationals.
The U.S. State Department announced Jan. 30 that it would
send planes to evacuate Americans.
Meanwhile, the airport was overwhelmed by thousands of
foreigners, many of whom arrived without reservations because
the government had disrupted Internet access and cell phone
service beginning Jan. 27.
Berlanger said the international staff of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church Association left the Egyptian capital early
Jan. 31, while the international staff of CARE International
was undecided about evacuating.
Caritas Egypt staff in Cairo could not be reached.
