Shortly after 1 PM on Thursday, March 5th, a repatriation flight landed at “Eleftherios Venizelos” Airport carrying hundreds of Greeks who had been stranded in Dubai. The passengers traveled via Sharjah, after days of anxiety and uncertainty, as tensions in the region have created serious problems for air travel. Greeks who returned to Athens described the difficult and agonizing hours they endured until they could reach their homeland again. At the airport, relatives and loved ones were waiting for them, many holding flowers, ready to embrace them after days of uncertainty and fear. “The situation was complete chaos,” one passenger said characteristically, describing the mayhem that prevailed at the airports, adding that “they kept us at the airport for 15 hours.” A Greek female traveler explained that she remained trapped in Sharjah for six days. As she mentioned, she had traveled to Thailand and on her return journey there was a stopover in the United Arab Emirates.
Read: Middle East: 90 Greeks repatriated with C-130 from Abu Dhabi
Greek repatriation from Middle East: “They canceled our flight without notice”
“The embassy helped tremendously,” she said, while also describing the climate of intense concern that prevailed among passengers. “There was enormous anxiety mainly from families with small children who didn’t know what was happening to them and what awaited them.” She added that their flight was suddenly canceled without clear information about the reasons. “They stopped our flight and we went back without them informing us why,” she said. Another Greek who was in Dubai commented laconically that “the climate is uncertainty”, explaining that their flight was intercepted and returned to Sharjah: “They intercepted us and sent us back to Sharjah.”
He added that he had been there since Saturday, February 28th, and on the first day they had to cover accommodation expenses themselves. “The first day we paid for the hotel ourselves and then the embassy organized where we would stay,” he said, adding that “people froze, they didn’t understand what happened.” “They called us at 2 o’clock and told us that at 5 there would be a plane for us to leave from Sharjah to Athens,” another passenger who participated in a special operation flight mentioned. The repatriation of Greek citizens from the broader Middle East region is set to continue in the coming days.
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