British security team flies to Sharm el Sheikh
Britain has sent a security services team to assess the safety of tourists in Sharm el Sheikh before thousands of families fly to the Red Sea resort for Easter.
The visit – which is believed to include members of the British armed forces, according to the Daily Telegraph – came as the Egyptian ambassador to London appealed to the government to resist pressure to amend its travel advice for the Red Sea resort.
At the moment, the Foreign Office is advising against travel to Sinai peninsula with the exception of the area within the Sharm "perimeter barrier".
However, its advice is believed to be still under review following the bombing of a tourist bus in Taba, near the Israel border, which killed the driver and three South Korean tourists in mid-February.
The attack by Sinai-based jihadists marked a dramatic shift in the campaign against the Egyptian regime and prompted German tour operators, including TUI and Thomas Cook, to evacuate tourists from Sharm el-Sheikh.
On Tuesday the Egyptian ambassador to London appealed on the government to resist pressure to change its advice for travellers, even though he conceded the terrorist threat within his country was growing in the run-up to presidential elections in May.
Ashraf Elkholy told the Telegraph that he believes the British team’s on-the-ground assessment broadly endorsed the Egyptian security cordon thrown up around the resorts.
"We have had a team from the security forces of Britain in the tourist areas to monitor the measures and see what measures are in place that are satisfactory," Mr Elkholy told the paper. "The security team has been there and we have cooperated and we hope that the decision taken will be the right one.
"Tourism is for the benefit of the Egyptian economy and the British traveller as an affordable and close destination."
Whitehall officials have said that no change in the position in terms of travel advice would be announced imminently.
"In light of the Taba incident we wanted to ensure we had the right information," an official said. "We will be looking at the situation very close and if anything necessitated a change we would act very quickly."
Yesterday, bomb blasts at a police post at Cairo University are reported to have led to a number of deaths and injuries, including the death of a senior police officer.
The Foreign Office updated its travel advice accordingly.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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