The federal government has seen calls for assistance from Canadians abroad drop by greater than half since last week, Global Affairs Canada said Tuesday, as a whole lot of residents and everlasting residents flee the Middle East amid the war with Iran.
The department said it is usually seeing fewer Canadians take the federal government’s offers of economic airplane seats and ground transportation as flights progressively resume in certain parts of the region.
The war has led many Gulf nations to shut their airspace and suspend flights as Iran fires missiles and drones at its neighbours, killing and wounding a whole lot of civilians.
Punishing airstrikes by the U.S. and Israel on Iran — which U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned will intensify Tuesday — have killed not less than 1,230 people for the reason that war began 11 days ago.
“Right now, we will not be aware of any Canadians who’ve been injured or killed due to hostilities,” Global Affairs Canada said in its latest update.
Greater than 110,700 Canadians within the Middle East have signed as much as the federal government’s Canadians abroad registry as of Tuesday, though the actual variety of Canadians within the region could also be higher.
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Global Affairs Canada said that, between March 4 and March 8, greater than 4,300 Canadians, everlasting residents and relations arrived in Canada from the Middle East.
The federal government has helped facilitate the departure of 871 Canadians and everlasting residents from the region to a secure third country since March 4, the department added.
It noted call volumes to the federal government’s 24/7 Emergency Watch and Response Centre have fallen from a peak of nearly 1,400 per day last week to simply over 600 on Sunday.
“Because of the gradual resumption of economic flights in certain parts of the region, uptake has been decreasing by Canadians and everlasting residents for seats on flights and ground transportation coordinated by the Government of Canada,” the update said.
The department noted Canadians within the region have been made aware of upcoming flights leaving Beirut in the approaching days in addition to “planned road movements” from Bahrain.
The federal government has chartered not less than one flight from the United Arab Emirates to Istanbul, block-booked a whole lot of economic flight seats and assisted with busing Canadians to secure third countries in recent days.
Canadians wishing to depart Iran are still advised to cross the border into neighbouring countries equivalent to Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan, where Canadian consular officials have been deployed to offer assistance with travel documents and arrange travel elsewhere.
Those Canadians who decide to travel through Iran to the border accomplish that “at their very own risk” and is not going to be helped on their journey, the department said.
The present list of Middle East countries classified as “avoid all travel” by the Canadian government includes Iran, Bahrain, Iraq, Israel and Palestine, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
Canadians are advised to avoid non-essential travel if possible to Jordan, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
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