Bulgaria continues evacuations of citizens from Middle East conflict zone

At a briefing, Deputy Foreign Minister Velizar Shalamanov said that efforts to evacuate Bulgarian citizens affected by the conflict in the Middle East are continuing.

He said the reopening of airspace over the United Arab Emirates was allowing flight operators to resume operations, helping the government's evacuation efforts.

According to officials, Bulgaria has already evacuated more than 1,000 people from the UAE over the past three days, making it the second country to do so.

Irena Dimitrova, the director of the Foreign Ministry’s Situation Centre, said that the authorities had also helped 130 Bulgarian citizens outside the immediate conflict zone. This included evacuating some people by air and 170 people by land, according to BGNES.

Additional flights have been arranged from Dubai on Friday, while another flight is planned to bring Bulgarian citizens back from the Maldives.

Meanwhile, ten staff members of Bulgaria’s diplomatic mission in Iran have safely crossed the border into Azerbaijan and are en route to their final destination, according to Azerbaijan’s state news agency, AzerTAc.

Editor: Miglena Ivanova