About 900 Belgians seek repatriation from Gulf states
Around 900 Belgian nationals have asked the government to repatriate them from the Gulf region. Belgium plans to organise four flights this weekend in an effort to evacuate as many people as possible from the war-affected area.
The first flight, which is expected to bring around 190 Belgians from Oman, is still scheduled to go ahead for the time being, although authorities are closely monitoring the security situation. Laurens Soenen, spokesperson for foreign minister Maxime Prévot (Les Engagés), confirmed the plans to Belga.
The situation has already disrupted similar efforts elsewhere. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Saturday afternoon that two Dutch repatriation flights from Muscat, Oman, to Amsterdam had been postponed “due to the security situation”.
Belgium nevertheless plans to operate a military evacuation flight from Muscat on Saturday. The MRTT aircraft was scheduled to take off at around 22:00 local time (19:00 Belgian time). It will make a refuelling stop in Hurghada, Egypt, before continuing to Brussels Airport in Zaventem, where it is expected to land at around 08:00 on Sunday morning. On board will be around 190 Belgians, along with 22 Spaniards, 13 French nationals, two Luxembourgers and two Swedes.
Additional evacuation flights are planned from the United Arab Emirates. Two A400M military aircraft will transport roughly 100 people each from Dubai to Hurghada on Sunday. From there, around 200 Belgians will board an MRTT aircraft bound for Zaventem. This group is expected to arrive in Belgium at around 01:30 on Monday morning.
A charter flight operated by Cyprus Airways has also been arranged. It will transport around 180 people from Dubai to Zaventem on Sunday, with a technical stopover in Larnaca, Cyprus. The flight is scheduled to land on Sunday evening at around 21:30.
All departure and arrival times remain approximate. Delays of between two and five hours are possible in operations of this kind, said Pierre Stervlynck, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Soenen confirmed that the flights remain dependent on the evolving security situation.
If all planned flights go ahead this weekend, around 570 people could be repatriated. The remaining Belgians registered for evacuation in the United Arab Emirates will be brought back later from Dubai using A400M aircraft, the Foreign Ministry said.
© BELGA PHOTO LAURIE DIEFFEMBACQ
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