Britain to bring home nationals on chartered flights
A British government-chartered flight is due to leave Beirut on Wednesday to bring United Kingdom nationals out of Lebanon.
The government says U.K. nationals, their spouse or partner, and children under the age of 18 are eligible, and priority will be given to the most vulnerable.
Until this announcement, the government urged Britons to leave the country on commercial flights.
On Monday night, Foreign Secretary David Lammy described the situation in Lebanon as “volatile” and warned it could “deteriorate quickly.”
The U.K. also sent 700 troops to a base in Cyprus to prepare for a potential evacuation of the estimated 5,000 British citizens in Lebanon.
Cyprus has agreements with around a dozen countries to act as a temporary host for their evacuated nationals before their repatriation. Under the “Estia” plan, evacuees will be processed and given accommodations for a few days before catching flights to their home countries.
Cyprus helped repatriate hundreds of British and other third-country citizens who were evacuated from Sudan in 2023. In 2006, some 60,000 foreign nationals evacuated from Lebanon during a month-long Israel-Hezbollah war used Cyprus as a waystation before heading abroad.
Source: Associated Press
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