Saturday, February 5, 2011

First batch of Malaysian students flown out of Cairo arrives in Jeddah

Contoh Bangunan Asrama Tabung Haji
(bangunan Tabung Haji Madinatul Hujjaj di Jeddah)

JEDDAH: The first batch of Malaysian students in strife-torn Egypt was flown out of Cairo at 3pm Thursday (9pm Malaysian time) and arrived here about two hours later.

The group of 356 Malaysians including a baby was flown on a Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Boeing 747 aircraft.


MAS executive vice-president (External Relations) Capt Datuk Mohd Nawawi Awang said Friday the airlines was trying to maximise the number of students and other Malaysians to be taken out on the aircraft from Cairo to Jeddah.


"This aircraft can fly to and fro the two cities three times a day.


On the first day, it wasn't too difficult for it to land in Cairo and everything went on smoothly as planned," he said, here, Friday.

The Malaysian students were visibly delighted to have been flown out of Cairo.

Some of them cried, some laughed while others were busy on their mobile phones, calling their parents in Malaysia to inform them of the latest development.

Haslisah Khalil, 19, a first-year medical student of Ain Shams University in Cairo, said here that she was grateful for the Malaysian government's concern and initiative in bringing them out of the Egyptian capital.


"I feel relieved...the situation there was really frightening although we were placed under curfew by the Selangor State House management. We were only allowed to go out after 1pm and must return fast.


"The curfew was from 8am to 1pm. After that, we would go out to buy some daily necessities like bread and sugar, and we had to jostle for the items with the local women," she said.

Another student, Mohd Shauqi Ismail, 26, from Malacca, said the government's move to help Malaysian citizens in difficulties including overseas showed that the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak was a caring and responsible government. "I am grateful and happy. Whether we're rescued by air or sea, it doesn't matter. What is important is our safety," he said.

The first-year Syariah student of Al-Azhar University in Cairo was accompanied by his wife, also a student at the university, and their two-year-old child.

All the students are now temporarily housed at the Tabung Haji hostel here.

The transfer of Malaysian students out of Egypt has also received the cooperation of AirAsia, Royal Malaysian Air Force and Royal Malaysian Navy.

At the moment, about 14,000 Malaysian students in Egypt have registered with the Malaysian embassy in Cairo.

Since Jan 28, street demonstrations have been taking place in several Egyptian cities including Cairo, Dumyat, Suez, Tanta, Alexandria and Mansoura, demanding President Hosni Mubarak to step down.

read more @ Bernama:

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/2/4/nation/20110204122241&sec=nation

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