"The Garuda flights to and from Cairo (Egypt) have been using Boeing 747-400s since February 2," Garuda Indonesia`s spokesperson, Pujobroto, said.
The Garuda aircraft flew from Jakarta to Cairo and made a transit at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. From Cairo, they directly flew back to Jakarta, he said.
Besides helping the repatriation of Indonesian citizens in Egypt, Garuda also worked with the Indonesian ministry of foreign affairs to take 300 troubled Indonesian migrant workers in Jeddah home, he said.
The Garuda plane taking the troubled workers was expected to take off from Jeddah International Airport at 11.00 PM on Sunday and was scheduled to arrive in Jakarta on Monday afternoon, he said.
Garuda would again fly back to Jeddah to take other groups of troubled migrant workers on February 17, he said.
Due to the deadly political turmoil in Egypt which forced President Hosni Mubarak to step down on Friday, the Indonesian government has decided to conduct a temporary repatriation of Indonesian citizens from the country.
In response to that policy, the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar University Prof.Dr.Ahmed Al-Tayeb deplored the evacuation of Indonesian students to their home country because their safety was guaranteed.
"Why must they be returned?" Prof.Dr.Ahmed Al-Tayeb asked at his meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono`s special envoy, Dr.Nur Hassan Wirajuda in Cairo last Wednesday.
He told Wirajuda who paid a courtesy call on him along with Indonesian Ambassador to Egypt A.M. Fachir that the safety and security of Indonesian students were guaranteed by the University.
In response to the Grand Sheik of Al-Azhar University`s deep concern, Wirajuda said the Indonesian government`s temporary evacuation policy was purely motivated by security reasons.
The security consideration and protection of Indonesian citizens were the only reasons for Jakarta to conduct the "temporary evacuation", he said adding that the students would be returned to Egypt as soon after the emergency situation in Cairo had ended.
"The Indonesian government does not send its students home but temporarily evacuates them as a result of emergency situation in Egypt. If the situation has returned to normal, they will return to Cairo to continue their study," he said.
Like the Egyptian situation, the fate of troubled Indonesian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia has also attracted the attention of the government and the public after many of them got stranded under the Jeddah city`s flyover. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
