"Mnnash guilt" .. Campaign for the Egyptian community in Qatar calls for the return of direct flights

Doha-Al Jazeera Net

Egyptian Wafa Mahfouz is holding her breath while sitting in front of an airline employee in search of tickets for her and her family to Egypt during the summer.

Fifa can not afford the luxury of choice among the airlines, but it is looking for the cheapest in light of the high price of airline tickets doubly since the embargo imposed on Qatar, in which the country participates Egypt to close its airspace and prevent direct flights between the two countries.

After a period of searching for available flights, the booking officer said that the cost of her travel, her husband and her three children was 18,000 riyals (one dollar equivalent to 3.65 Qatari riyals) with a transit period of more than 12 hours for round-trip travel. Those words were a big shock to Fifa, who was hoping to travel this year to her country after canceling travel last year because of the increase in ticket prices, to see herself facing the same fate by staying another year without seeing parents because what the family could provide throughout the year was not enough for the cost of travel.

Wafa hopes that the campaign of "Mellnash Thnab" - launched by activists in the Egyptian community living in Doha - will be a miracle for the Egyptian government to be convinced that the decision to prevent direct flights with Qatar affects only the 350,000 Egyptian community in the country. In Qatar are prey to the greed of airlines that take advantage of the situation and raise ticket prices and the sense of helplessness in front of the desire to return home.

Compare prices
Wafa, who lives in Qatar for eleven years, said that before the siege on Qatar, the cost of traveling to her country was not more than 8,000 riyals for her and her family, compared to the prices of the day, as well as the convenience of direct travel and avoid the types of trouble that passengers on different airlines Loss of luggage, delays in travel and problems in transit, in addition to excessive prices.

The Egyptians living in Qatar found their place in the campaign of "Al-Malnash", which is escalating in the recent period on the social networking sites and has become the only lifeline to urge the Egyptian government to reconsider its decision to stop direct flights between the two countries. Some of them produced videos that summarize suffering and offer solution to officials in their country, Some of them are urging Egyptians inside to participate in their campaign and help them find a solution to that suffering.

Ahmed Shalaby, an airline employee, is trying to find solutions for Egyptians living in Qatar. He says he is trying to help everyone who resorts to him for proper airline tickets, but the situation has become difficult, especially with the size of the Egyptian community pressing on other airlines. For supply and demand, and when increasing the demand for certain companies increase prices directly, and this is not as much exploitation as the basis for work in this area.

Intensive tours
Shalabi added that Egypt Air operated three daily flights between Doha and Cairo, as well as three other Qatar Airways flights, as well as Qatar Airways' flights to Burj Al Arab, Luxor and Aswan airports. to Egypt.

He said that during the past years, passengers stayed on some flights at airports for four and five days in search of a way to travel or return to their countries, as well as the problems caused by the loss of thousands of bags.

Shalabi shows that the airlines do not have any solutions offered to the Egyptian community in Doha. Before the blockade, the direct flight ticket ranged from QR 1,500 to SR 2,000 per season, but the situation changed today. The flight ticket ranges from 3000 to 5000 riyals during peak times during Summer, and expressed support for the campaign on which the activists in the community to urge their government to retreat from these disastrous decisions.

Engineer in one of the contracting companies Magdy. He also called for the consolidation of efforts to pressure the Egyptian government to fulfill its citizens' demand for comfortable travel, especially since the Egyptians residing abroad are the first foreign exchange source in the Egyptian budget, stressing that failure to respond to their requests may lead them to escalate by stopping transfers amounting to about $ 1 billion annually Qatar only.

The remittances of Egyptians abroad are one of the most important sources of foreign exchange in Egypt. According to official figures, the total remittances of Egyptians working abroad in 2018 reached 25.5 billion dollars as the largest foreign exchange supplier in the country's budget.