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Americans stranded in the United Arab Emirates have criticised a lack of support from their government, after flights out of the country were cancelled because of the Iran war.
Several people stuck in the Gulf told the FT that helplines and websites meant to offer support were defective, with one stranded traveller saying they felt as if they were being “trolled”.
Air travel has been severely disrupted since Saturday, with Iranian missiles and drones causing limited damage to terminal facilities in the airports of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait City and Manama in Bahrain over the weekend.
Middle Eastern airlines have begun flying stranded passengers out of the Gulf, while some governments are now running repatriation flights.
A US state department charter flight took place on Thursday. Additional flights would be “surged” across the Middle East, the department said in a social media post.
But some Americans still do not know how or when they will be able to leave the region.
Alexander Wade, a Washington state resident, is among those trying to leave the UAE. Since February 27, he has been stranded in Abu Dhabi, where his mother used to live and where he had travelled to collect her dog and take it back to the US.
Among Wade’s criticisms of the US government is that its issuance of evacuation notices to Americans in the Middle East on Monday came too late.
“Evacuate where and evacuate how? How do you tell us to evacuate after the tension has already come to a head?” he said. “It almost feels like we’re being joked; like we’re being trolled.”
Wade said that, when he tried to call an emergency helpline for Americans affected by the conflict, he was met with a “very unsettling” pre-recorded voicemail that told him the US government should not be relied upon for help evacuating the region.
“I have friends who are in Doha, who are here in the UAE, who are in Bahrain as well. And we all share the same sentiment that there is no support,” he added.
Louise Herrle, a retired financial executive from Pennsylvania, became stranded in Dubai while on holiday with her husband.
Communication from the US authorities was “good” at first, she said, but had recently deteriorated.
“[In] the last couple of days, the information has just been kind of inconsistent,” she explained.
One link to a website containing information about chartered flights “doesn’t work”, she claimed.
Herrle managed to speak to someone when she rang an emergency helpline, but said the person “really didn’t have much information and basically told me that we are to rely on commercial flights to get out of the country at this time, that the evacuation order wasn’t official . . . and that they were not compiling a list [of stranded American citizens]”.
“You do just want to get some kind of feedback that they know where you are, and that you’re ultimately going to get out,” Herrle added.
Emily, a dual UK-US national living in Dubai, is hoping to leave the UAE with her British fiancé ahead of their wedding which is due to take place in the UK in two weeks.
The couple, who are now scheduled to fly to the UK on Wednesday, after Emirates restarted flights, had originally contacted the US state department for support, but received little help.
Emily initially received an email advising her to remain in Dubai, despite the US government’s evacuation notices, which she described as “completely conflicting”.
After failed calls to an emergency phone number for Americans located overseas, she did get through to another helpline in the US.
However, Emily said the agent told her she did not know when flights would be departing, adding: “If I’m honest, you’ll probably find out before I do.”
Although the state department has been in contact with Emily to clarify her partner’s visa status, she described overall communication as “very disappointing”.
“You would think that if they knew this was going to happen . . . that there would have been something in place already prepared to evacuate their citizens from the Middle East,” she said.
A state department spokesperson said: “Since February 28, the Department has facilitated the safe return of over 20,000 American citizens from the Middle East, [with] approximately 8,500 arrivals [on Wednesday]. Thousands more have successfully transitioned to safe havens in Europe and Asia or remain in active transit.”
Additional reporting by Steff Chávez in Washington.