Lisbon authorities have already repatriated, with specific or commercial flights, around 500 Middle Eastern nationals, in the wake of the attacks on Iran, and the 73 Portuguese who were on a cruise in Dubai also began to depart this Saturday.
The cruise passengers were stranded on the ship for a week and are only now leaving the territory, with commercial flights ensured by the shipping company, a process that has been monitored by the Portuguese Government, despite some complaints of lack of contact from the Portuguese authorities.
“We signed up to be repatriated on the website, but we were never contacted. On the ship, there was someone from the embassy and then we asked to be added to a WhatsApp group where someone set up a collection point”, said a passenger, who had a flight scheduled this Saturday to Barcelona, where she will connect with Porto.
“We spoke to the company and they said they would only guarantee us safety if we stayed on the cruise and waited for a solution from them”, explained the passenger.
A different version has Emídio Sousa, Secretary of State for Portuguese Communities, guaranteeing that the Portuguese ambassador went to the ship and spoke to half of the Portuguese who were on the ship.
“A cruise is a city, it is not physically possible to be with everyone” and “instructions were given to proceed with repatriation”, but passengers chose to return on flights organized by the company.
“It hurts to believe, but I admit that someone was not contacted. However, the group was contacted as a whole and we remain in permanent contact with the company”, explained the governor, who minimized the allegations.
“I understand that there is always some stress and people react differently, but we are doing our job and our diplomats are doing their job in an extraordinary way,” he added.
According to the Portuguese official, “around 500 people have already been repatriated”, many on commercial flights or in conjunction with exceptional connections from other countries.
“We are planning a flight for tomorrow [domingo] which may not even happen”, because “we had a lot of people in Qatar and there are commercial flights”, so “this situation may not arise”, said Emídio Sousa.
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