Abike Dabiri-Erewa, chairperson of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), says Nigeria will begin repatriating its citizens stranded in the Middle East once “the airspace opens”.
Dabiri-Erewa spoke on Tuesday while reacting to complaints
from a Nigerian stranded in Qatar.
The development follows heightened tension in the Middle
East after Iran launched strikes in retaliation for alleged US missile
activities from a base in Qatar.
Iran has been exchanging strikes with Israel and the US
since February 28, when the conflict began.
Prior to the attacks, several countries issued travel
advisories, urging their citizens to leave high-risk areas in the region.
Nigeria issued an advisory on the first day of the conflict,
noting that it was closely monitoring the “evolving and volatile situation”.
The following week, a plane carrying French citizens from
Oman and later Egypt landed in Paris on March 4, the first of several
repatriation flights organised by France.
A group of students also returned to Italy after their
government evacuated them from Dubai.
Data from Flight Radar, the flight-tracking website, showed
that Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar closed their airspace immediately
the war broke out.
By March 2, Etihad flights began temporarily departing from
Abu Dhabi.
On Saturday, the first Qatar Airways flight took off for
London, Madrid, Paris, Rome, and Frankfurt.
But there have been complaints from Nigerians trapped in
parts of the Middle East due to the ongoing face-off between Iran, the US and
Israel.
“Never been this helpless before in my life 9days stuck in
Qatar with my family and other Nigerians who were on transit, countries have
picked up their citizens from here it’s mostly Nigerians that are left! We have
called Embassy and Consulate yet no positive response,” the Nigerian X user
lamented on Monday.
“Every Nigerian here just feels helpless, the passport can’t
even get us a Saudi visa! to at least leave from here, once you click Nigerian
it stops even with a Uk visa. This situation is a highly Diplomatic situation,
but we seem to not have a strong diplomatic relation.
“For the repatriation flight, for how long are we going to
have to wait for? We need help here; there are really old people here with us
and children.”
‘CLOSED AIR SPACE’
Responding to the complaints, Dabiri-Erewa said “skies are
currently unsafe to fly”.
“Luckily a flight came in from the UAE to Lagos two days ago
just before another strike and closure of the airspace.
“Once the airspace opens, the multi-agency fgn team on
crises and evacuation are on standby.
“Our prayers with you and all our people in affected
countries.”
It is unclear how many Nigerians are stranded in Iran or
other Middle East countries affected by the ongoing conflict.
Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Saudi Arabia are
popular tourist and transit destinations for Nigerians.
On Sunday, data from Flight Radar showed increased activity
from major UAE airlines. including Air Arabia, Emirates, and Flydubai owing to
available flight corridors.
On Tuesday, Qatar still had an active alert indicating that
its airspace remained closed but noted that a total of 16 Qatar Airways flights
were expected to depart Doha with Nairobi, Kenya, as one of its destinations.
The airline also plans to operate additional departures from
Doha on Wednesday to Cairo, London, Jeddah, Manila, Kochi, Muscat, Istanbul,
Mumbai, Delhi, Nairobi, Islamabad, Madrid, Frankfurt, Colombo, and Milan.
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