Lawyer Pedro Marinho Falcão, on vacation in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, also criticizes the Portuguese authorities.
“I and other Portuguese here in Dubai face the inability to find means of transport to leave Dubai for Portugal and, on this matter, the embassies do not give us any information (…) And what we Portuguese, who are here and feel, is that there is, from the point of view of the Portuguese State, no answer to the problem”, lamented the lawyer.
“We are completely abandoned. We have communication that is made through the Portuguese Embassy’s community WhatsApp, but the information they give us is generic, and I allowed myself to send a message to this WhatsApp, and I received a generic response: ‘check our communication channel'”, he stressed.
In his opinion, the Portuguese State does not have solutions for those who want to leave Dubai and the Government should have already activated mechanisms.
Around 400 requests for repatriation of Portuguese people
Emídio de Sousa also said that there are around 400 requests for repatriation of Portuguese people in the Middle East, 63 of which are in Israel, where Portugal is preparing extraction, partly by land.
“There are 63 [pedidos de repatriamento] in Israel and right now we have everything ready to look for them. Part of the extraction will be by land, as the airspace is closed”, he revealed, adding that in the Middle East area there are “more or less 400 requests”.
The government official stressed that, with the progressive reopening of airspace with commercial flights, there is the possibility of some Portuguese citizens, the vast majority of whom are tourists, returning via this route.
The Secretary of State had stated on Monday that 53 Portuguese had requested extraction from Israel.
Israel and the United States launched a military attack against Iran on Saturday, to “eliminate imminent threats from the Iranian regime”, and Tehran responded with missiles and drones against US bases in the region and Israeli targets.
At least 555 people have died in Iran since the attacks began, according to the Iranian Red Crescent humanitarian organization. The United States Army confirmed the deaths of six American soldiers.
Portugal, France, Germany and the United Kingdom condemned Iranian attacks on neighboring countries.
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