Foreign governments are evacuating their citizens from Lebanon
By Lynsey Chutel
LONDON — With Israeli airstrikes extending into Beirut, the Lebanese capital, foreign governments have been scrambling to secure safe passage out of Lebanon for their citizens, urging people to leave while the city’s international airport remains open.
Some governments have bought up seats on commercial flights, while others have chartered whole planes.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, said the United States had chartered a flight from Beirut to Istanbul on Tuesday (8) for Americans wanting to leave the country.
“We hope to organize additional flights if there is demand,” he added at the time. The United States has also identified 800 seats for Americans on commercial flights out of Beirut over the past several days, though not all those seats have been filled.
The British government said Thursday (3) that it would be chartering several flights to evacuate its citizens and their dependents from Lebanon. The first, ferrying more than 150 people, landed a day earlier, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said on social media.
Also Thursday, an Airbus A330 chartered by the Spanish government arrived in Beirut to evacuate about 380 citizens in the country, Spanish news agency EFE reported. More chartered flights will arrive in the coming days, it said.
A day earlier, Germany evacuated 130 “particularly vulnerable” citizens from Lebanon, its foreign ministry said. That flight also delivered 5 tons of humanitarian aid for civilians in Lebanon, according to the ministry.
Several other foreign ministries, including those of Italy and the Netherlands, have issued warnings and offered assistance to their citizens as the violence has intensified. Canada’s foreign ministry said it had secured 1,000 seats for Canadian citizens on several commercial flights leaving Lebanon.
“If you are a Canadian citizen in Lebanon, you must leave now,” Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said in a statement Monday. “If you are offered a seat, take it now.”
By Wednesday (2), 200 Canadians had left Lebanon, according to the ministry.
Australia also secured more than 500 seats for 1,700 Australian residents and their families living in Lebanon, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a televised press briefing. Citizens who wish to leave will have to wait until Saturday (5), she said and will be flown to Cyprus.
“Please take whatever option is available to you,” Wong said. “Please do not wait for your preferred route.”
Russia evacuated 60 of its citizens using an aircraft operated by the country’s emergencies ministry, state news agency Tass reported. The plane, which had also delivered humanitarian aid, was due to land in Moscow on Thursday, the Russian news media reported.
Many foreign nationals working in Lebanon have found themselves stranded, huddling alongside Lebanese who have fled their homes. Lebanon, which has a population of roughly 5.3 million, hosts an estimated 177,000 migrant workers, many of whom are domestic workers from Asia and Africa, according to the International Organization for Migration, a UN agency.
-New York Times
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