MFA: Bulgaria Evacuates Over 1000 People from the Middle East

The flight, which is expected to collect another group of Bulgarian citizens, is traveling to Dubai, said Irena Dimitrova, director of the "Situation Center" Directorate at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) during a briefing of the Ministry's Crisis Staff regarding the escalation of the security situation in the Middle East and support for Bulgarian citizens in the region. According to her, the plane is expected to land at 3:30 a.m. Bulgarian time.

A flight from Dubai to Sofia on a "Bulgaria Air" plane will also arrive on March 7, which is expected to land at around 9:15 p.m.

Bulgaria is the second country in the European Union (EU) to manage to evacuate over 1,000 people by air transport from the United Arab Emirates, she also said. We are in constant coordination with the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Transport and Communications, Dimitrova added. 

There are many duplicate names of people on the lists, and we are now reconciling the data of the people who have returned and those who are still there, Irena Dimitrova pointed out. 

From Oman, we managed to evacuate 111 people, and another seven are also leaving with our assistance via individual routes, Dimitrova pointed out, specifying that the data on the number of people who have been evacuated is as of 2:00 p.m. today. From Kuwait, the Bulgarian citizens who have requested assistance are 40, and the first group will be evacuated overland through Riyadh, after which they will return to Bulgaria on a commercial flight. An additional 21 Bulgarian citizens have been evacuated with a flight organized by Austria – from Riyadh to Vienna, of whom 14 were from Bahrain, six – from Saudi Arabia and one – from Qatar. In Qatar, there are 310 people waiting for assistance, and we are working on an option for evacuation with the assistance of partner countries and are looking for an option to evacuate them by land, Dimitrova also said. From Jordan, with the assistance of the embassy, 130 Bulgarian tourists managed to evacuate quickly, she added.

From Iraq, 20 Bulgarian citizens have been evacuated via the land border with Turkey. For Israel, Dimitrova pointed out that we have 14 short-term residents who were evacuated from our embassy in Tel Aviv, with the assistance of another EU country, via a land route through Egypt. We are assisting two more Bulgarian citizens to "Amman" airport, who are awaiting a flight. There is also one Bulgarian citizen who wants to leave Iran and we are providing assistance through the embassy in Baghdad, and we will soon be able to evacuate her through the Iran-Iraq land border, Irena Dimitrova also pointed out.

We are receiving calls and processing emails around the clock, including the signals received in our diplomatic missions, she stated. According to her, upon receiving these signals - with a request for assistance for evacuation, people do not want to say whether they are traveling individually, whether they are with a tour operator company, or whether they are permanent residents there.

There is no way to control the entire process with so many requests received, and that is why yesterday we invited colleagues from the Ministry of Tourism, so that with this flight, which is now about to arrive with 326 people, we can review together which people are returning with it, she also said in response to a question whether there are VIP persons with the first flights arriving in Bulgaria. The idea is that the next flight to be organized should be made for the people who are organized by tour operator companies and to be taken over by the Ministry of Tourism for coordination, as they and the tour operators have all the data about the people and will be able to pick them up.

There are people who have traveled with tour operators, but at the same time have contacted us as humanitarian cases for evacuation, Dimitrova explained. We will not leave people who have not returned to Bulgaria, she assured. Irena Dimitrova called on people to contact the Situation Center if they have found an alternative option for evacuation. After another flight is organized, there will probably be about a hundred people who will need to be evacuated.