The evacuation of Spaniards in the Middle East is underway: 175 citizens are already traveling to Madrid

Barcelona / MadridHejoint US-Israeli attack against Iran It had been brewing for some time in the offices of Washington and Tel Aviv, but the imminence of the offensive didn't become clear until the day before it began. This short window of opportunity and the rapid spread of the conflict, with Tehran's response against several countries in the regionThe closure of airspace has taken citizens around the world by surprise, particularly those who were in the Persian Gulf on Saturday, whether working, on vacation, or traveling. Many are now stranded, uncertain of when they will be able to return home. For this reason, the Spanish government has already begun evacuating 30,000 Spaniards from the region, as announced by Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares at the press conference following the cabinet meeting. He explained that 175 Spanish citizens are already flying to Madrid from Abu Dhabi and are scheduled to arrive at Barajas Airport at 7:00 PM. He urged all Spaniards in the area to register as travelers to help keep track of the number of people in the Middle East. A request that the Catalan government has also made—currently counting 1,200 Catalans—with the aim of being able to send instructions for their return to Catalonia if the violence escalates. In fact, the Minister of Foreign Action, Jaume Duch, has assumed that the number of citizens is higher: "These are the people we would like to identify themselves, so that we have the means to know who they are and where they are, and to be in contact with them," he said. According to data from Idescat, 6,115 Catalans live in the Middle East.

How will the evacuation be carried out? "I cannot go into details about the evacuations for security reasons. But we have planned evacuations by both land and air. The security circumstances are very different depending on the country," the minister admitted. The most difficult situation, however, he asserted, is in Iran because that is where the US and Israeli operations are concentrated, and where there are 150 Spaniards. He also referred to the United Arab Emirates because that is where the largest concentration of people is located, with a total of 13,000 Spaniards. For Albares, the "absolute" priority is to be able to evacuate all Spaniards who wish to leave the conflict zone, and he assured that for this reason the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be working around the clock. The difficulty of the evacuation is considerable: the airspace [of the region] is almost entirely closed, and the distances by land are very large, explain sources from the ministry: "From Dubai to Riyadh, for example, the distance by road exceeds 1,000 km," they say.

The witnesses

One of those stranded by the airspace closure is Gerard, a 27-year-old resident of Ulldecona (Montsià). This Sunday, he was scheduled to travel to Catalonia from Doha after a week in Qatar, where he had gone to visit his sister, who lives and works there. However, with the outbreak of the war, his flight, which he was also supposed to take with his father, was canceled. Since then, they have been confined without a return ticket. "We've tried to contact Qatar Airways, but the lines are jammed. We've also sent emails and tried to change our tickets through the mobile app, but it's impossible," he lamented in a video call with ARA.

Qatar is one of the countries with US bases that Iran has attacked in the last two days in response to the US-Israeli offensive, as it has also done with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Kuwait. "On Saturday, they already recommended we go buy some things because, as a precaution, they might have to close us for two or three days," explains Gerard. Later, his sister received an alert on her phone: "The message said to go home because a missile attack was coming."

The sound of explosions has been recurring ever since. "That same Saturday, already at night, we clearly saw five or six missiles being intercepted and exploding on the horizon. It was spectacular, like a movie," says Gerard, who doesn't hide his unease. "At first, you don't believe it because it's a situation you've never experienced, but as the hours go by, you realize it's serious, and increasingly so," he adds, while expressing surprise at the "apparent normality" he sees from the window: "We feel the missiles exploding in the air, but people are open."

"Seek shelter and stay away from windows"

Jordi explains this feeling. He's 24 years old, from Barcelona, ​​and has been working in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, as a youth basketball coach at the Dubai Basketball Academy since September. "After the restrictions of the first 24 hours, things are starting to return to some normality at the center," he explains in a conversation with this newspaper. However, following the authorities' instructions, he's currently in lockdown, and the club where he works has suspended training. He received information about a possible missile launch from Iran just before boarding a bus to travel with players to a competition in Abu Dhabi, a trip that was ultimately canceled as a precaution.

Hours later, that evening, he received an alert on his phone: "Possible missile threat, seek shelter immediately in the nearest building and stay away from windows, doors, and open areas," the official message read. From his accommodation, he had heard some explosions, but nothing more serious occurred. "At first there was nervousness and the feeling of saying: we have to go back," he explains, but adds that the tension eased the following morning. "The Ministry of Defense insists in its messages that we shouldn't worry, that the defenses are performing well," he says, confident that the situation can de-escalate in the coming days.

Adriana, a Catalan woman stranded in Abu Dhabi, is also keeping a close eye on how the war is developing. In statements This morning on Catalunya Ràdio She explained how the outbreak of the conflict caught her at the airport, where she had arrived from Manila (Philippines) to continue her journey to Barcelona. "We had to take a three-hour flight of stairs, and here we are," she recounted, confessing how nervous she was on Saturday because of the "loud and powerful noises" of some explosions. The airline informed her that the Emirates would pay for her accommodation and food until she could leave, and for the time being, she is staying in a hotel. "Everyone tells us it's a very safe country, that we should stay calm," she explained.