The MC80 evacuation cruiser, sometimes referred to as the MC80 evacuation carrier, represented a specialized variant of the MC80 Star Cruiser tailored for the large-scale transport of civilians during emergency evacuations.
These evacuation cruisers, derived from both civilian and military MC80 Star Cruisers, possessed the capability to securely accommodate 75,000 individuals. However, this capacity could be doubled at significant peril. In addition, each ship could carry 16,000 tons of cargo. To accommodate enhanced life-support systems, all offensive weaponry and shield generators were dismantled. Furthermore, the hyperdrives of these ships were downgraded to a primary Class 4 system, supplemented by a Class 14 backup, restricting the cruisers to only a limited number of short hyperspace jumps.
During 10 ABY, Mon Calamari technicians rapidly converted MC80 Star Cruisers into evacuation transports, achieving a production rate of more than one per day. This was done to facilitate escape from the Imperial attack on their planet, an assault led by the devastating World Devastators. Despite the evacuation ultimately proving unnecessary, many inhabitants of the planet's boarded the cruisers and departed from the ongoing conflict.