Global Affairs Canada (GAC) announced that two flights chartered by the federal government to take Canadians out of Lebanon departed Beirut for Istanbul on Thursday with just 275 passengers and 379 empty seats.
There will be 654 seats on the two flights, Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly told reporters in Paris on Thursday for the Francophone summit.
“Please take a seat,” Jolie said. “Not all seats are held by Canadians at this time.”
Shortly after Jolie’s story broke, the agency issued a press release saying there were a total of 275 passengers on those two flights, none of whom were Canadian. The ministry said passengers included nationals of “like-minded countries” such as Australia, New Zealand, Denmark and the United States.
GAC officials said the exact number of Canadians who left the country by plane Thursday will be known on Friday after the ministry reviews the manifest. Officials also confirmed the number of vacant seats.
“International Affairs Canada has increased the emergency response capacity of the Emergency Monitoring and Response Center in Ottawa to ensure that all Canadians in Lebanon who have accepted the offer of a seat on a commercial aircraft are contacted,” the department said in a statement. said.
“Our teams are working around the clock and have contacted more than 2,300 people to offer flight options,” it added, adding that as of Tuesday, more than 1,700 people had been contacted.
Earlier this week, GAC officials told reporters at a technical briefing that only a third of the 1,700 people in Lebanon contacted at the time took the seats offered.
The ministry said nearly 900 seats will be available from Friday to Sunday.
“No progress is being made in negotiations with the embassy.”
Efforts to expel Canadians from Lebanon are intensifying as Israel warns residents of more than 20 towns in Lebanon to evacuate and continues its military operation in the country.
Israel bombed central Beirut early Thursday after the Israeli military experienced its deadliest day in a year as clashes with the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah continued on the Lebanese front. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said at least six people had died.
Some Canadians in the region told CBC News they tried to contact the Canadian embassy in Lebanon to secure seats on the plane, but to no avail.
“Nothing is happening with the embassy. I have written to the embassy many times and nothing has happened,” Feryal Elkadri told CBC News Network’s Andrew Nichols on Wednesday. he said.
She said she was in Lebanon with her husband, 1-year-old son and 6-month-old daughter.
Elkadri said she and her daughter are Canadian citizens, but her husband and Lebanese-born son have Lebanese passports.
Ferial Elkadri and his family are leaving Lebanon on a commercial flight supported by the Canadian government as Israel intensifies its military operations in the country. But she says the problem is complicated by the fact that her husband and one of her children are not Canadian citizens.
“My daughter and I can go, but my husband and son can’t,” she said.
“I was asked yesterday, ‘Are you going to go?’ And I said, ‘So why can’t I leave them behind?’ So let’s all work together. Sho. ”
Global Affairs Canada says Canadians and their immediate family members will be able to secure seats on government-arranged charter flights, but the $330 airfare will be the responsibility of all passengers.
GAC deferred CBC’s questions about the definition of “immediate family” to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, which did not immediately respond.
An 8-day journey to safety
Some Canadians in Lebanon are taking matters into their own hands.
Kumil Takace said he flew to Lebanon to help his parents, sister and two nephews flee the country.
The family arrived in France over an eight-day journey through Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Turkey. They arrived on Monday.
Takace said her nephews are traumatized by what they went through.
“When they hear a loud noise, they think it’s an airstrike, even if the door suddenly closes,” he said. as it happened Wednesday’s host is Nil Koksar.
as it happened7:30Canadian family evacuated from home in Lebanon safe in Paris
As fighting intensifies between Hezbollah and Israel, Kumil Takaceh and his family evacuate their home in Nabatiyeh, Lebanon, and find safety in Paris. Takace told As It Happens host Nir Koksar that several members of his extended family had been killed in the airstrike and that he didn’t know if he would be able to return home.
“They like to draw, so so far all they’ve been drawing are bombed-out buildings. That sort of thing.”
The drive to Beirut, which normally takes about an hour, took 13 hours.
“There was an airstrike while we were walking on the road, like next to the road. [and] It’s on the road,” Takace said.
“I actually know a Canadian couple who lived there, and they both died in an airstrike. They were trying to take a different route, but the building was bombed as they passed and they couldn’t make it. did.”
The trip cost the family between $10,000 and $20,000. The family had to abandon their car in Syria. He said he was renting the vehicle for a month in France, hoping the situation would be stable enough to return home. Otherwise, they will head to Canada.
“At this point, I’m just thinking, ‘I have to risk my life to get out of here,’ and the car has nothing to do with it,” he said.
“If we come back, we probably won’t have a home.”
