Travel company TUI flew home about 20 of its Swedish travelers from the region, according to sources. ' She added, 'There have been rebookings to alternative flights. ' About 40 TUI travelers remain in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
Travel company Apollo has also managed to get home a number of Swedes in the last 24 hours, specifically four from the United Arab Emirates and four from Oman. Ving has not gotten any Swedes home in the last 24 hours. Expressen previously reported that 28 Swedish travelers have been able to get home from the Middle East in the last 24 hours.
The exact number of Swedish citizens still stranded in the Middle East and their specific locations is not known. Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard wrote on X that a three-child family who had been in Dubai is on their way to Cyprus. She announced that the family was flown out from Dubai to Cyprus after getting a spot on a flight via the EU's civil protection mechanism.
Six evacuation flights have so far been sent to bring home EU citizens from the Middle East through the union's civil protection mechanism. Ten EU countries have now chosen to activate the mechanism themselves, meaning they can organize flights to bring home their own and other EU countries' citizens and have parts of their costs covered. Sweden, like our Nordic neighbors, has so far not done so.
I want to be very clear, Norway and Denmark and the Netherlands are making exactly the same assessment as we are. They are sending people on site to be helpful. They have not yet concluded that chartered planes are the safest for Swedish citizens.
The specific reasons why Sweden has not activated the EU civil protection mechanism, unlike ten other EU countries, are unclear. During a press conference, Maria Malmer Stenergard said that Sweden is considering the possibility of chartering planes, but that no such decision has been made at present. She emphasized that the closed airspace and security situation make it difficult.
The timeline and criteria for Sweden to decide on chartering flights for repatriation remain uncertain. Stenergard stated, 'I want to be very clear, Norway and Denmark and the Netherlands are making exactly the same assessment as we are. They are sending people on site to be helpful.
' Regional security developments include an Iranian drone hitting an Azerbaijani airport near the two countries' shared border, according to Reuters. Two people were reported injured after a drone hit the terminal building at an airport in Nakhchivan, an Azerbaijani enclave bordering Iran. There are reports that Kurdish Iranian dissident groups based in Iraq are preparing for a cross-border military operation in Iran.
The details and potential impact of this reported preparation are not known. Italy, together with Spain, France, and the Netherlands, will send ships to protect Cyprus in the coming days, according to Reuters. France states that they will allow the US to use certain French military bases in connection with the Iran conflict.
Israel will begin opening its airspace for outgoing flights on Sunday, said Transport Minister Miri Regev on Thursday, although the decision still depends on the security situation, according to Haaretz. The full extent of the security situation affecting airspace closures and flight operations in the region is unclear. Work to get home stranded EU citizens continues.