The Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in Egypt, Sabit Subašić, said that the process of evacuating foreign citizens from the blocked Gaza Strip has begun and that they are expecting an invitation from the Egyptian authorities at any moment when they can move towards the Rafah border crossing.
The ambassador confirmed for BHRT that BiH citizens will not be evacuated today.
“Some of my colleagues, representatives of other embassies, are on their way to the Rafah crossing. Some have finished their work,” said Subašić in an interview with journalist from Anadolu agency.
He adds that they do not know according to which criteria the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Egypt made a list of countries that includes about 40 countries. What he knows is that 4-5 representatives of foreign embassies go to Rafah every day.
“We, like many other embassies, are in a position to wait. The evacuation process has started, it is going along, although it is very crowded with many problems. We are of course involved in the evacuation process,” Subašić emphasized.
He reminded how BiH the embassy applied to the Egyptian authorities with the exact number of people it wants to evacuate, in accordance with their request.
“On our list, which we sent in accordance with the procedures, we have 54 people. There are 29 people with BiH citizenship. The rest are their close relatives,” explained Subašić and added:
“We spoke to the Egyptian assistant minister for consular affairs last night and he made it clear that we should wait. They just call after midnight and say, get ready, you’re going to the Rafah border. We try to be ready. We’re just waiting for the call, like everyone else others are waiting.”
He also added that he is in constant contact with Bosnia and Herzegovina’s citizens who are currently in Gaza.
“I just spoke with one of our citizens who happened to be in Gaza, he came to visit his family. He happened to be in Gaza before the onset of this crisis. And now he cannot leave the area. It is really a sad and multifaceted situation, dangerous and difficult “, concluded Subasic.
