Irish citizens in Gulf region told to register with embassy and not go to airports

Vivienne Clarke

Minister of State with responsibility for International Development & Diaspora, Neale Richmond, has said that the Government was looking at all the options on the table to repatriate Irish citizens from the Gulf region.

Speaking on both Newstalk Breakfast and RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, Mr Richmond said the advice for the 22,000 Irish citizens in the region was to register with the embassy and follow advice from local authorities.

The Minister added that a number of Irish people were on flights out of Abu Dhabi yesterday, and more would do so today. Efforts at present were focused on people “stuck in transit”.

When asked about the possibility of flights being chartered by the government for Irish citizens, Mr Richmond said the government was working with European partners to look at all options. The difficulty was that at present airspace was closed.

The advice for Irish citizens was to stay in touch with airlines and not to go to airports. Helplines were in operation by the Irish embassy in Abu Dhabi which coordinated all operations for the Irish in the region.

Tánaiste Simon Harris, speaking on his way into Cabinet, said that all options were being considered "in real time" including using commercial flights, chartering flights and working with EU partners.