Dirco: Evacuation of South Africans in Middle East, Gulf ‘impossible’
The Department of International Relations and Cooperation says South Africans will have to wait for airspace across the Middle East and the Gulf to reopen before they can travel home.
The biggest disruption to global air transport since the Covid pandemic continued Sunday, with thousands of flights affected and busy Middle Eastern hubs including Dubai and Doha shuttered as Iran lashed out after US-Israeli strikes.
Israel and Iran traded new attacks Sunday, after Tehran hit both the Dubai International Airport -- the world's busiest for international traffic -- and Kuwait's main airport during its retaliatory strikes one day earlier.
Iran, Iraq, Israel, Syria, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates had all announced at least partial closures of their skies Saturday after the US and Israel attacked Iran, bringing civilian air traffic over the Middle East to an abrupt halt.
Notable airlines that cancelled services included Emirates, Etihad, Air France, British Airways, Air India, Turkish Airlines, and Lufthansa.
Head of Public Diplomacy at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, Clayson Monyela, explained that evacuations cannot take place while airspace remains closed and land borders are restricted for security reasons.
“When countries are at war, in the manner that is happening with missiles and all of that, the first thing they do is to shut down the airspace… if anything is up there, you shoot it down, because you don’t know whether it’s a missile or an aeroplane.”
He said the department does not have a confirmed figure for the number of South Africans in the affected areas.
“South Africans don’t tell us when they leave; we can only guess and estimate,” Monyela noted, adding that in the United Arab Emirates alone, about 18,000 South Africans are registered with the mission.
“In some of these countries, they’ve also shut down the internet. So, communication is a challenge,” Monyela said.
Despite this, he confirmed that the department has set up WhatsApp and other communication groups to remain in contact with registered citizens.
“So far, we’ve not lost anybody. The South Africans that we know of are all accounted for in space, so we are monitoring the situation to see what develops.”
Monyela emphasised that the situation is affecting multiple countries, not only South Africa.
“This is not unique to South Africa. All countries that have their nationals in the UAE, all of them are experiencing the same problem. Everyone, including diplomats.”
He added that even South African embassy officials in the region are subject to the same movement restrictions.
The department will continue to stay in touch with registered South Africans and is monitoring developments closely for any opportunity to assist once conditions allow, Monyela said.
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