(Report) - Fleeing Egypt Tourists Leave Chaos In Their Wake. `Million Person March' Planned.

(HN-1/31/11) Cairo, Egypt.  The Cairo International Airport was mass chaos today as many countries evacuated citizens to their home countries and many Egyptians attempted to make their way back to their home towns from major cities such as Cairo and Alexandria.

Many foreign citizens, regardless of whether or not they wanted to leave, even given the dangers of staying, almost have to go. After a foreign citizens home government issues a travel warning and then an evacuation order, often times the citizen is essentially giving up the security and concern of their consulate offices and are on their own. In fact many insurance companies will not support claims of citizens who have defied their own governments orders. 

And, in the case of Egypt, even if your home government issues an order to evacuate, you may even have to pay for the privilege of leaving.  Canadian citizens who arrived at Cairo’s airport today for their flights out were told they needed to sign a waiver for a bill that would later be sent to them of $400 so they could leave the country and make it just as far as Frankfurt, Germany. While they may make their flights, they were told their luggage may not; and many did not have much with them as the call for evacuation came only with hours to pack.

Today, Lufthansa had many of the flights out of Cairo after Delta and several other major carriers stopped operations into and out of the Egyptian capital.

Michael Bociurkiw, our correspondent in Cairo stated that, “On the way here to the airport from the Four Seasons hotel on the First Residence, the taxi driver took another way around to avoid Tahrir Square.  In one part of the city I saw at least 40-50 tanks lined up in a column.  Many intersections were still being guarded it looked as though by private militia, and I saw absolutely no national police in the streets.”  He added, “Almost all of the legendary historical sites that I could see such as the Cairo Zoo and the entrance to the Pyramids at Giza were being guarded by Egyptian military vehicles”.

Bociurkiw goes on to say that the “Four Seasons hotel on the First Residence was operating at only 10 percent today. The manager stated they are not going to close because once you close its very hard to open again. And I spoke to a construction company owner early this morning who said he had to lay off close to 1000 men because his projects are no longer going forward with the crisis on. The impact on businesses in the country is staggering”.

Once he arrived at the Cairo airport, Bociurkiw spoke with many of those waiting in long lines at the airport to find out how they were getting out of the country.  All had been told that everything was being done to get them out of the country by 7pm local time tonight, even though a new curfew was put into place today restricting people's movements from 3pm to 8a.

A CBC television crew who Bociurkiw was interviewed by, told him that they were already aware of the 6 Al Jazeera journalists who had been arrested and then later released without their camera equipment and that many reporters they were in contact with had taken to shooting still photos on their blackberries and Iphones as a way to document the crisis.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, the opposition in Egypt has called for a `Million Man’ style march in order to show their displeasure with the steps the Mubarak government has taken so far in addressing the demonstrators concerns and this morning the Egyptian Army issued a statement essentially endorsing the protesters rights to demonstrate.  

 ---HUMNEWS staff