Road to Hope: long wait outside Egypt

Continued from: http://palywely.blogspot.com/2010/10/hope-convoy-still-waits-at-egyptian.html

The Road to Hope humanitarian aid convoy now comprises 30 vehicles and over a hundred humanitarian aid workers. It has travelled four and a half thousand miles through Europe and across North Africa. However the entire convoy has now been stuck for several days on the Libyan - Egyptian border following a wrangle with the Egyptian authorities.

Egypt is insisting that all aid for Gaza must arrive at the port of Al-Arish near the Gaza crossing, either by sea or by air, and refuses all overland crossings of its territories. The Road to Hope convoy is now faced with two options. They will wait for the Libyan convoy “Al Quds 5” which is due to leave shortly and if there is sufficient international pressure on Egypt both convoys may be able to cross the border together. However, if Egypt remains intransigent the only other option is to take all the vehicles by ship from Libya to Al Arish, which may take several weeks to organize.

A spokesman for Road to Hope said: “Now we find ourselves in our third day at the Libyan / Egyptian border and we remain hopeful that the land route will be opened to us in the coming days”. The convoy departed from London with the understanding that the land crossing through Egypt had not been closed to it. One reason for our optimism that we will travel the land route is the fact that the Al Quds convoy, a Libyan convoy also delivering aid to Gaza, is set to travel the land route in the coming days. For several weeks we have hoped to join our convoys and travel together. However, the convoy is awaiting permission from the Egyptian authorities to pass through Egypt in this way.”

As of today, Sunday 31st, Egypt has withheld its permission for Road to Hope to join forces with Al Quds Convoy - although that hardly seems within the Egyptian authorities' remit.

“Although the outlook for an expeditious approval to proceed with our mission is likely, we have always been prepared for the ups and downs and challenges that have been commonplace when attempting to deliver aid to Gaza. If we were to move forward in the next day or two this would be one of the most trouble-free convoys yet.” – Convoy Leader Kieran Turner, 1st November