Nine Egyptians evacuated from Aleppo, due for repatriation: embassy

The Egyptian embassy in Damascus said on Sunday that it had completed the procedures for repatriating nine members of an Egyptian family that had been living in the war-torn city of Aleppo, which was recently captured by Syrian government forces.

The embassy evacuated the family from Aleppo, with a view to returning them to Egypt, state news agency MENA said.

Mohamed Tharwat Selim, acting on behalf of the Egyptian embassy in Damascus, said in a statement that embassy staff are still processing the paperwork for another three members of the same family.

Among the complications in the case is the fact that one family member married a Syrian girl, but the marriage could not be properly documented due to the fighting, said Selim. Meanwhile, he said, a child born within the family could not be registered due to the war.

The embassy has also managed to transfer one Egyptian female citizen out of the Barzat El-Balad area in the Damascus countryside, where fighting ongoing.

A group of Egyptians evacuated from Aleppo and Damascus should arrive to Egypt this morning, according to the embassy, having evacuated a total of 95 Egyptians so far during 2016.

Selim said that the embassy is facing multiple procedural and logistical problems, including the absence of documents relating to marriages between Egyptians and Syrians.

He said that many Egyptians in Syria had declined the embassy’s offers of repatriation, saying that they have lived in Syria for generations and do not want to lose their possessions by leaving.

Source: Ahram Online