On Sunday, it was reported that on the Yemeni island of Socotra due to the announced blockade of flights A group of several dozen Polish tourists who went there despite official warnings from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs got stuck. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has previously advised against all travel to Yemen, which has been in civil war for nearly 12 years.
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When will Polish tourists be able to return to the country?
Which travel agencies does the Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticize?
What is the current situation in Yemen?
What does the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recommend regarding travel to Yemen?
On Monday, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Maciej Wewiór assured that “The Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Riyadh remains in constant contact with the management of the airlines, which they could potentially launch a connection allowing our citizens to leave Socotra safely“. “Representatives of our mission in Saudi Arabia are coordinating, together with the Delegation of the European Union in Yemen based in Amman, activities related to the situation of citizens of European Union countries stuck on the island of Socotra,” assured the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Tourists will be able to return to Poland. We know when
Late on Monday evening, Wewiór reported that On January 7, the local airline Yemenia will offer a flight from Socotra to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, and Poles will be able to return home safely.
“I would like to thank the management of Yemenia for opening flights from Socotra to enable Polish tourists to leave the island,” wrote the Polish ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen on Tuesday on the X platform Robert Rostek.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Polish embassy in Saudi Arabia posted the schedule of commercial flights of the Yemenia airline scheduled for for Wednesday. According to this schedule, the Airbus A320 aircraft is scheduled to take off from Socotra on time. 9.15 local time, and landing in Saudi Arabia three hours later.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs on “putting citizens in a dangerous situation”
The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized on Monday in a post on X that “unfortunately there are cases of not only ignoring the announcements of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding safety by some trip organizers, but also downplaying them in the information provided to customers.
“Despite the difficult security situation, some tour operators – despite the warnings of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – continue to offer trips to the island of Socotra, which belongs to the Republic of Yemen, which is ravaged by civil war. The war, which has been going on for over 11 years, has led to one of the most serious humanitarian crises in the world,” Wewiór noted.
He recalled that due to the deterioration of the security situation in the Republic of Yemen and the suspension of air connections Warnings against trips to dangerous areas are regularly updated on the website of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Due to the crisis situation on the island of Socotra, the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Riyadh would like to remind you that the highest level of travel warning is in force for Yemen — recommendation to avoid all travel to Yemen, including Socotra. The recommendation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been in force since the beginning of the war in Yemen,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned at the beginning of the year.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasizes on its website that “due to the security threat and the lack of a Polish mission in this country the possibility of providing direct consular assistance to Polish citizens is very limited“. “Polish citizens staying in the territory of Yemen, despite the above warning, should register their stay in the Odyseusz travel registration system,” it added.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman also spoke on Tuesday in an interview with TVN24 about tour operators ignoring warnings.
— The warnings we publish on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website are not issued pro forma. I have seen messages on travel agency websites that this is black PR for countries that are actually safe. Meanwhile, we are talking about an island belonging to a country that has been in civil war for 11 years. There is a gigantic food crisis there, one of the biggest humanitarian crises in the world, Wewiór emphasized. — Travel agencies that organized trips to Socotra are guilty of misleading and downplaying the level of threats. As a ministry, we draw attention to their great irresponsibility and putting our citizens in a dangerous situation – he added.
The tourists were unable to return
On Monday, AFP reported that over 400 foreign tourists stranded in Yemen due to flight blockade. According to the Singaporean website Strait Times, their number may be almost twice as high. There are Poles among them. The Singapore daily The Straits Times quoted a statement from one of the tourists staying in Socotra, which stated that there can be over 700 foreign tourists on the island.
The current increase in tensions in this area is related to the conflict between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – until recently acting as the dominant allies in the Arab coalition seeking to restore power to the internationally recognized government of Yemen, whose forces were losing territories to the Houthi rebels.
In December last year, control over Hadramaut province was taken over by the rebel Southern Transitional Council (STC), supported by the UAE government. Saudi Arabia responded by firing on a weapons shipment it claimed was sent through Abu Dhabi for STC forces.
The leader of the Saudi-backed Yemeni Presidential Council, Rashad al-Alimi, called the STC's actions an “unacceptable insurgency” and declared an air, sea and land blockade. As a result, in the last days of December Socotra's airport also stopped operating.
