More than 100,000 British nationals are stranded in the Gulf after airspace closures grounded most flights amid Iranian missile and drone strikes across the region, Downing Street has confirmed. The total number of Britons in the area is believed to exceed 200,000, with roughly half having registered their presence with the Foreign Office.
The government is considering all evacuation options, including commercial, charter, and military flights, as well as bus journeys over land borders into Saudi Arabia and Turkey. “The increasingly reckless strikes from the Iranian regime targeting Gulf allies directly put British lives at risk,” a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said. “The safety of those British nationals remains this government’s top priority.”
The Foreign Office has established round-the-clock consular support and deployed extra staff to coordinate with the travel industry and regional governments. However, with commercial flights still largely suspended, the quickest route home would require a resumption of air travel. A few passenger planes were due to depart from Abu Dhabi and Dubai on Monday evening, but thousands remain stranded in transit.
Military-run evacuations are considered potentially more dangerous, and the risk of further airstrikes persists. The UAE government is currently covering accommodation and meals for stranded travellers, but it is unclear if this will continue long-term. The Foreign Office has advised against travel to Iran, Israel, and Palestine, and against non-essential travel to several Gulf states.
Experts warn that a mass evacuation would be extraordinarily complex. Sir Simon Fraser, former head of the Foreign Office, noted that any attempt to evacuate all British nationals from Gulf states without commercial carriers would be “extraordinarily hard and complex.” The Gulf airlines—Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar—dominate the skies, making alternative arrangements challenging.
The crisis follows recent UK repatriation efforts, including during the Covid-19 pandemic and the collapse of travel firms Monarch and Thomas Cook. The government also organised charter flights out of Israel nine months ago during strikes on Iran.
