A 12-year-old British boy who spent three nights stranded in Dubai airport has returned to the UK, as the conflict in the Middle East continues to disrupt travel. Ahmad Ali, from Swindon, Wiltshire, was travelling back from Pakistan when the airstrikes began at the weekend, leaving him under the care of Emirates staff at the airport.
His parents and younger sister, Noor, tearfully greeted him at Heathrow airport’s arrivals gate on Tuesday. His mother, Hafsa Ali, said: “It was very terrible for us because he is only 12 years old and he was alone. Thanks to Emirates, they looked after my son. I can’t express my feelings.” Ahmad added: “It was so terrible but I was with Emirates and they wanted to take care of me.”
Also on the same Emirates flight EK8001 were a couple and their three-year-old daughter who had camped out in an abandoned nightclub. Ourania Righelato, 32, from Barnet, north London, said they stayed in the building to shelter from missile strikes. “We were sleeping in an abandoned nightclub with beds put together and we had a little one with us, our daughter, she’s three. We had no idea when we would come home at all,” she said.
Air travel in the Middle East has been severely disrupted since Saturday, with thousands of flights cancelled, after the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran, which retaliated with attacks across the region. Magda Papadimitriou, 40, from Greece, who was stuck in Dubai for five days, said: “It was very scary. Dubai doesn’t have shelters, it doesn’t have that kind of stuff, [but] they tried to make us feel less worried.”
