This post was written by Hatchet Staff Writer Cory Weinberg.
Five of the 14 GW students who have been studying abroad in Egypt were evacuated to Athens, Greece this afternoon, and others are on their way to various locations in Europe, University officials said Monday night.
The evacuations came a day after the U.S. State Department urged American citizens in Egypt to leave the country amid the political protests that had taken hold there. Only a few GW students remain in Egypt.
“A handful of students who remain in Cairo have flight information and transportation arrangements to the airport,” University spokeswoman Candace Smith said.
Students in the AMIDEAST program in Cairo were on lockdown in one apartment since Friday afternoon, before heading to Athens today.
“The feeling was definitely relief. We have all been going crazy, stuck inside with no access or communication with the outside world,” junior Ian Goldin said in a Skype interview from Athens. “We were constantly hearing gunshots outside and having fighter jets and helicopters flying over the apartment, and tanks driving past down on the street.”
Students in the AMIDEAST program left from Cairo in a charter plane yesterday, but were delayed because of a government-imposed curfew on the city. Most students welcomed the evacuations, as the Human Rights Watch estimated that 150 people have died in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez since the protests began.
“The situation in Egypt was in no way improving – food shortages were already beginning, night-time lootings of supermarkets were occurring, and the military seemed to be tightening its grip. It has been extremely stressful,” junior Lauren Kardos, who plans to spend the rest of the semester studying in Jordan, said in an e-mail.
The evacuations – and the protests themselves – interrupted the students’ time abroad in Egypt, and the students must now decide where they will finish their studies for the semester.
“We will be working with our students to determine their next steps, including alternative study abroad options for the remainder of the semester,” Smith said.
Despite the focus on Americans leaving the country, violence in Egypt is escalating and the future of the country and its leadership remains uncertain.
“The contrast of the fact that we were all flown out on a private flight with the fact that 150 Egyptians have died fighting in this thing makes me think that no matter how dangerous or inconvenient it got for students and tourists in Egypt, that the story should be focused on what this means for Egyptians,” Goldin said.
