‘Skies are unsafe to fly’ — Abike Dabiri says Nigeria will repatriate citizens from Middle East when airspace ‘opens’

Abike Dabiri-Erewa, chairperson of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), says Nigeria will begin repatriating its citizens stranded in the Middle East once “the airspace opens”.

Dabiri-Erewa spoke on Tuesday while reacting to complaints from a Nigerian stranded in Qatar.

The development follows heightened tension in the Middle East after Iran launched strikes in retaliation for alleged US missile activities from a base in Qatar.

Iran has been exchanging strikes with Israel and the US since February 28, when the conflict began.

Prior to the attacks, several countries issued travel advisories, urging their citizens to leave high-risk areas in the region.

Nigeria issued an advisory on the first day of the conflict, noting that it was closely monitoring the “evolving and volatile situation”.

The following week, a plane carrying French citizens from Oman and later Egypt landed in Paris on March 4, the first of several repatriation flights organised by France.

A group of students also returned to Italy after their government evacuated them from Dubai.

Data from Flight Radar, the flight-tracking website, showed that Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar closed their airspace immediately the war broke out.

By March 2, Etihad flights began temporarily departing from Abu Dhabi.

On Saturday, the first Qatar Airways flight took off for London, Madrid, Paris, Rome, and Frankfurt.

But there have been complaints from Nigerians trapped in parts of the Middle East due to the ongoing face-off between Iran, the US and Israel.

“Never been this helpless before in my life 9days stuck in Qatar with my family and other Nigerians who were on transit, countries have picked up their citizens from here it’s mostly Nigerians that are left! We have called Embassy and Consulate yet no positive response,” the Nigerian X user lamented on Monday.

“Every Nigerian here just feels helpless, the passport can’t even get us a Saudi visa! to at least leave from here, once you click Nigerian it stops even with a Uk visa. This situation is a highly Diplomatic situation, but we seem to not have a strong diplomatic relation.

“For the repatriation flight, for how long are we going to have to wait for? We need help here; there are really old people here with us and children.”

Responding to the complaints, Dabiri-Erewa said “skies are currently unsafe to fly”.

“Luckily a flight came in from the UAE to Lagos two days ago just before another strike and closure of the airspace.

“Once the airspace opens, the multi-agency fgn team on crises and evacuation are on standby.

“Our prayers with you and all our people in affected countries.”

It is unclear how many Nigerians are stranded in Iran or other Middle East countries affected by the ongoing conflict.

Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Saudi Arabia are popular tourist and transit destinations for Nigerians.

On Sunday, data from Flight Radar showed increased activity from major UAE airlines. including Air Arabia, Emirates, and Flydubai owing to available flight corridors.

On Tuesday, Qatar still had an active alert indicating that its airspace remained closed but noted that a total of 16 Qatar Airways flights were expected to depart Doha with Nairobi, Kenya, as one of its destinations.

The airline also plans to operate additional departures from Doha on Wednesday to Cairo, London, Jeddah, Manila, Kochi, Muscat, Istanbul, Mumbai, Delhi, Nairobi, Islamabad, Madrid, Frankfurt, Colombo, and Milan.