A British mum has spoken of her anxiety and fear at being stranded upon a cruise ship for nearly every week within the Gulf together with her 3-year-old son.
Mother-of-three Emily Kingsley, 33, who’s on the MSC Euribia ship that’s docked within the Rashid port Dubai, described being ‘stuffed with anxiety and scared’ that she ‘can’t get home’ to her two other children.
Mrs Kingsley – who boarded the cruise on Saturday together with her husband and three-year-old son – has not left the liner since.
The captain has told passengers to remain near the terminal area as missiles fly overhead.
The family from Wiltshire, whose other two daughters aged nine and ten are at home with their grandparents, are amongst apparently 200 other Brits stranded abroad.
‘It’s been pretty unnerving,’ Mrs Kingsley told Metro. ‘My son is fed up and just desires to get off the boat but we’re staying here as have seen some pretty scary things.
‘Missiles being intercepted above our heads, black smoke clouds on the port, loud bangs and explosions.
‘We get emergency alerts on our phones and it’s pretty worrying.’
With their flight home on Saturday cancelled, the family – who were meant to be on every week’s holiday – have no idea after they can return and for the way long they might be stranded on the boat.
Mrs Kingsley said: ‘We actually don’t know as we’re getting no information from Emirates as each time we call them the lines hang up because it is clearly so busy and their live chat does the identical thing.’
The family can’t praise the ship’s staff enough for being ‘so caring’ and jokingly said whilst much of the ship’s facilities are up and running, ‘the casino has been shut the entire time so annoyed lots of the guests.’
As for the way she is spending her time, Mrs Kingsley said she is capable of sit and the sun and her child has been capable of use the child’s club.
Understandably, her frustration at not getting through to Emirates is ‘making my anxiety sky high’.
She added: ‘It’s so frightening hearing bangs and missiles, although I do place confidence in the defence system here. I’m just eager to get home as I want to see my other kids.
‘For now I’m just trying my hardest to get some information from the airline or embassy but no one gets back to us. It’s so upsetting.’
Other Brits have also told of their nightmare trapped abroad unable to catch a flight home.
Mum Emma Hudson, 43, has been stranded within the UAE since Saturday, after her British Airways flight was cancelled.
Iranian attacks have forced Dubai airport to shut, leaving Emma and her husband Paul, 41 and daughter Sadie,14, stuck of their hotel.
She said the family are ‘traumatised’ by the constant loud bangs of missile interceptions and that that they had to hunt shelter within the basement.
Emma claimed that British Airways told her to go to the bombed Dubai airport to hunt help with accommodation, which is costing her £350 a day.
This will’t be paid for by her insurance because they don’t cover ‘war’, she added.
The mum said the British Embassy told her to ‘stay inside’ and ask local charities to assist with funding.
Calling on the federal government to do more to assist Brits, the educational support assistant, from Middlesborough said: ‘British Airways and the federal government have 100% failed their very own.
‘The airline told me the one way they can assist with accommodation is that if I’m going to the airport and speak to ground staff.
‘I said, “is that a joke?”, the airport has been bombed twice.
‘My daughter suffers with anxiety, and she or he’s been absolutely petrified.’
The family’s flight home on March 4 was cancelled before the rebooked plane back to the UK on March 4 was also scrapped.
The earliest flight Emma can get out of the UAE booked for March 9.
One other couple say they’ve endured a ‘holiday from hotel’ after being stranded in Thailand attributable to the conflict.
Laura and Paul Webster, from Birmingham, are stuck in Phuket, Thailand and have been told by their travel agent that there are not any available flights to get them home through the next two weeks.
They were booked to fly with Emirates to Dubai on Wednesday for 3 nights before heading home to Birmingham.
But their flights were cancelled due to the conflict within the Middle East, they usually are unable to search out alternatives.
The pair are actually miles away from their young children back within the UK, who’re being sorted by former partners.
Mrs Webster, 40, told the Press Association: ‘We’ve got work, we’ve got kids. We wish to get back ASAP. We don’t care if meaning 4 flights.
‘The travel agent said there’s none on their central reservation system.
‘They keep attempting to put us on Emirates via Dubai and the flights keep getting cancelled due to the airspace.
‘Once we’ve tried to search for flights ourselves, there’s just none.’
Mrs Webster said that there are ‘a great deal of people’ of their hotel who’re stuck and that while they secured three extra nights of accommodation, they might be forced to ‘fend for ourselves’ after that.
She added: ‘You possibly can’t claim for it on insurance, since it’s war. It’s just horrible. It’s literally a vacation from hell.’
Emirates has told passengers it is working ‘a reduced flight schedule until further notice’.
The airline said passengers transiting in Dubai ‘will only be accepted for travel if their connecting flight is working’.
Emirates has been approached for comment regarding Emily Kingsley and Laura and Paul Webster.
British Airways has been approached for comment regarding Emma Hudson.
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