The escalation of protests across Egypt on Sunday has prompted businesses and governments to evacuate their citizens and clients from the country.
The U.S. Embassy has been closed indefinitely, according to embassy spokeswoman Elizabeth Coulton. PBS travel-show host Regina Fraser, currently in Egypt filming an episode of her show “Grannies on Safari,” has been frustrated by the lack of information.
“I’m going to tell you briefly that I contacted the embassy here two or three days ago, and no one answered. No one answered,” said Fraser, who has been traveling on a Nile River cruise. “The phone just kept ringing.”
Fraser said someone at the embassy picked up the phone on Sunday and transferred her call to a recording advising callers to visit the U.S. government website.
“There is no Internet here in Egypt,” Fraser said. “How could I find out information if the Internet is not working?”
Fraser said she wasn’t aware that flights to the U.S. would be available on Monday until informed by CNN.
“Many people just want to get out,” Fraser said.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told NBC’s “Meet the Press” program on Sunday that, “thankfully, we do not have any reports of any American citizens killed or injured” in Egypt’s anti-government demonstrations.
The U.S. government typically offers loans and, if necessary, charter flights to its citizens evacuating a foreign country. Those expenses, however must be reimbursed to the government.
According to senior State Department officials, there are 380 government employees at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, and 760 spouses and children living with them in Egypt. Officials anticipate helping transport 600 people out of the country.
Other nations were already evacuating citizens. Turkey’s semiofficial news agency Anadolu Ajansi stated that two planes were headed to Egypt Sunday to begin transporting Turkish citizens out of the country.
The television news service Al Arabiya broadcast an unconfirmed report that eight commercial aircraft from Saudi Arabia were on their way to evacuate Saudis from Egypt.