Assistance companies prove their worth

US emergency assistance companies On Call International and Medex Global Solutions are both busy arranging evacuations for US tourists, students and businesspeople from Egypt. The two companies said that as of 3 February, over 500 clients had been flown out of the country on specially chartered planes, helped by security workers from the firms who were out on the streets of Cairo and other major cities tracking down clients who had bought protection for their trip. Charlie LeBlanc, president of Medex’s security services, said: “The situation [in Egypt] is very fluid. Military checkpoints were popping up; curfew times were changing; protestors were setting up roadblocks too.” On Call chief executive Mike Kelly added that departures of the aircraft were being made more difficult by the curfew, which currently runs from 4 pm until 8 pm local time, effectively meaning that planes can only land there until 2 pm. Further troubles were reported by LeBlanc at the airport, where airport authorities held a plane full of his clients on the runway for over nine hours as the aircraft was searched for fleeing Egyptian politicians or large sums of money. Linda Kundell, spokeswoman for the US Travel Insurance Association, said that travel insurers were extending their services in response to recent events in Egypt, adding that in general, policies on offer in the US cover expenses related to scheduling or weather-induced travel disruptions, and typically cost between four and eight per cent of the trip cost. However, more often than not, a separate package must be bought for the cover of political evacuations. So far, the violence has been contained to major Egyptian cities, with the popular tourist resorts along the Red Sea remaining unaffected. However, some travellers have expressed their concern that the violence could spread. Stuart Bensusan of Essential Travel in the UK has warned that customers who abandon trips to resorts such as Sharm el-Sheikh will not be covered under their travel insurance policies. He said: “Any customer who travelled to Egypt prior to the Foreign Office issuing advice will be covered under emergency medical expenses and repatriation, hospital and personal accident. However, those who travelled in spite of the advice being issued will not be covered. It is standard practice that civil unrest is not covered under most travel insurance policies. We are advising holidaymakers travelling to unaffected areas to keep in contact with their tour operators and stay abreast of the advice on the [Foreign Office] website.” The British government has decided to charter a second commercial aircraft in order to repatriate tourists stranded in Cairo, which will leave the country on Saturday. The first aircraft chartered by the government left Egypt on 2 February with 180 people onboard. The governments of the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain have issued a joint statement about the situation in Egypt, calling for a transition process to a broad-based government to start now. In the statement, the leaders said: “We are watching with utmost concern the deteriorating situation in Egypt. The Egyptian people must be able to exercise freely their right to peaceful assembly, and enjoy the full protection of the security forces. Attacks against journalists are completely unacceptable. We condemn all those who use or encourage violence, which will only aggravate the political crisis in Egypt.” Julian Priestly, head of Aon’s Crisis Consulting team, added: “While the long-term impact on political risk is not clear, a more immediate concern for companies is the safety of their people. What’s going on in Egypt highlights the need for organisations to have plans and procedures in place to protect both in-country workers and travelling personnel from getting caught up in violent clashes of this kind.” He added: “Situations like this can blow up very quickly – and in places that have traditionally been considered ‘safe’. Organisations need to have robust travel risk management and incident response mechanisms in place to ensure that they are doing everything possible to protect their employees and keep them informed.” Beverly Marsden, director of Aon Political Risks, said of the unfolding situation in Egypt: “From a Political Risk point of view it is too early to say whether the events in Egypt will lead to losses in the insurance market. Global confiscation policies may include political violence cover, and rioting and looting may impact assets covered under such policies. Shutting down the Internet or mobile networks would not necessarily generate claims as such action is likely to be short term – plus government contracts with mobile telecoms providers may well give the government the right to shut down networks for reasons of national security.”