Dozens of Canadians have left Iran as Ottawa lays out ways to get out – National
Dozens of Canadians have been able to leave Iran alone by crossing the border into neighboring countries, government officials said Wednesday night, as Ottawa laid out ways to get out of the region amid a “quickly” deteriorating situation.
With airspace in much of the Middle East closed as the war between Iran, the US and Israel escalates, officials admitted during a technical meeting with reporters that “there’s not much we can do right now” to evacuate people from Iran.
Global Affairs Canada is instead ramping up additional staff to enter countries bordering Iran to provide visa and other assistance to Canadians fleeing the war.
Across the region, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said the government is working on a number of options to get Canadians out safely, including a “limited number” of chartered flights, reserved seats on commercial flights, and ground transportation.
“I want to speak directly now to Canadians in the Middle East and the Gulf region: what does your government have,” he said.
“We are working hard for you, and we are planning options for you to leave this region.”
A senior official said after officials in Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan helped “a handful” of Canadians in each country leave Iran, another dozen have been helped in Turkey and Armenia.
The government did not have an exact figure for how many Canadians left Iran this way.
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Anand said the government is looking at charter flights from the United Arab Emirates in the next 72 hours, but no concrete charter providers are secured.
As of Wednesday, more than 106,000 Canadian citizens and permanent residents in the Gulf region have registered with Global Affairs Canada, Anand said. The actual number is likely to be higher as registration with GAC is voluntary.
Iran currently has approximately 3,000 Canadians registered with the GAC.
Anand said more than 2,000 74 Canadians registered in the Middle East have requested travel assistance, including 74 in Iran, out of more than 4,000 4,000 Canadians seeking information since the war began on Saturday.
“Unfortunately, we do not have the ability to organize ground transportation in Iran, as we do not have diplomatic relations with Iran and have declared the IRGC a terrorist organization under Canadian law,” the minister said.
Anand said ground transportation is being provided for Canadians wishing to travel to Qatar, where the airport is closed. He said 200 Canadians were being bussed with existing plane tickets at an airport in Saudi Arabia to fly out of that country.
“I want to point out that any means of transportation on the ground has risks,” he added.
Global Affairs Canada said earlier Wednesday it had found “limited seats” on commercial flights out of Lebanon for its citizens and permanent residents.
A government official at a technical forum said 75 airline seats were made available Wednesday for Canadians flying from Beirut to Istanbul. Anand noted that “most” of those seats were occupied by Canadians.
Another two hundred seats have been reserved for the next three days, Anand said.
He said Israel was helping with a bus service to Egypt where there are flights from the region.
A government official said the closure of airspace in the region made it “difficult to foresee” a military withdrawal from the Middle East, but several options were on the table.
“To be clear, the situation is dynamic and unpredictable” and “changes by the hour,” Anand said.
“Staying in place is the general advice for all. And if Canadians wish to travel, we put in place options for them to do so, and those options are country-specific and based to some extent on whether that country has open airspace where flights can take off from the region.”
Anand said he has been in contact with partners including Australia and the United Kingdom to see if more help can be given to Canadians who wish to leave the region.
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