Americans stuck in Middle East open up about struggling to get home with little government help
Alyssa Ramos’ evacuation from Kuwait turned into a 48-hour journey spanning four continents. The travel blogger said she arranged the entire trip herself without direct assistance from the U.S. government.
“They keep going on the news and saying they’re doing everything they can to get Americans out,” Ramos said after landing in Miami on Thursday. “I know for a fact they’re not.”
Ramos said she repeatedly contacted the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait for help. According to her, she was directed to the consular section and told the embassy could not assist her in leaving the country. Instead, she said officials advised her to enroll in the U.S. government’s Smart Traveler program and shelter in place.
Ramos is among many Americans and other foreign nationals who either evacuated from the Middle East or remained stranded there Friday, nearly a week after Israeli-U.S. strikes on Iran quickly drew more than a dozen nearby countries into the crisis.
Some U.S. citizens described fear and frustration as they dealt with closed airports, canceled flights, and confusing travel guidance. Meanwhile, countries such as Poland, Australia, and France moved more quickly to send military or chartered aircraft to evacuate their citizens.
Susan Daley of Chicago said arranging her own travel out of the region was extremely stressful. She had been on a work trip in the United Arab Emirates and returned Thursday on the first commercial flight from Dubai to San Francisco since the war began on Feb. 28.
“Having the State Department or whoever tell us, you need to get out immediately, but there’s no help,” Daley said. “So you’re on your own to make your own travel plans. That was the most stressful thing.”
Officials in President Donald Trump’s administration pushed back on criticism that the U.S. response was too slow.
The U.S. State Department said the first government-chartered repatriation flight from the Middle East arrived Thursday, and additional flights were expected to arrive daily. Officials did not immediately provide details about how many passengers were on board or the exact departure locations. The department said it had “directly assisted” about 10,000 U.S. citizens in the region who sought help or information.
A social media post from the assistant secretary of state for public affairs showed Americans boarding a charter plane displaying the logo of the NFL’s New England Patriots.
The aircraft is believed to be at least the second such charter flight to land at Washington-area Dulles International Airport. The State Department also said that about 20,000 Americans had returned safely to the United States since the conflict began.
Despite that, U.S. embassies across the region continued encouraging Americans to rely primarily on commercial flights, even as much of the Gulf’s airspace remained closed or restricted.
Without clear guidance from Washington or U.S. consular offices, some travelers said they turned to WhatsApp group chats and social media to share tips about available flights and possible routes out of countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.
Some stranded travelers also launched GoFundMe campaigns to cover unexpected costs from extended hotel stays and other expenses while waiting for flights.
Ramos created several WhatsApp group chats Monday through her social media account, “My Life’s a Travel Movie,” after followers messaged her asking for help leaving the region.
Within three days, more than 2,200 people had joined chats dedicated to evacuating from Dubai, Doha in Qatar, and Kuwait. Members coordinated rides to airports where flights were still operating, shared names of trusted drivers, and listed prices and payment options.
In one message Thursday, a group member said her husband and two children were stuck in Dubai after two flights were canceled. She wrote that their 2-year-old child, who has diabetes, was running low on medication. Other members quickly responded with suggestions.
Jason Altmire, a former Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania, said he eventually left Dubai after the United Arab Emirates partially reopened its airspace and Emirates airline resumed limited service.
“We never heard anything from the State Department other than a general email advising us to find our own way out,” Altmire said in an email interview. “I found this, along with the ‘you’re on your own’ voicemail from the State Department, to be infuriating.”
Several Democratic lawmakers also criticized the response. In a letter Tuesday to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, they said the lack of preparation and communication with Americans overseas was unacceptable and fell short of the State Department’s responsibility to provide consular assistance.
Rubio acknowledged the challenges Tuesday, saying recovery flights were being organized but that airspace closures were complicating evacuation efforts.
“We know that we’re going to be able to help them,” he said, while noting that it would take time because the United States does not control regional airspace restrictions.
Cory McKane, an American who had been stranded in Dubai, said he eventually secured a flight out of the region Wednesday after traveling to Muscat, Oman.
To avoid the crowded airport in Dubai, McKane and several friends rented a car and drove to the border with Oman. From there, he said, taxi drivers were charging up to $650 to take travelers to Muscat’s airport, where flights were still operating.
McKane said he was fortunate to have friends familiar with the area and that stranded travelers created a WhatsApp group to share information.
“Everyone’s been sending each other resources because, quite frankly, the U.S. has not done a single thing in any capacity,” McKane said. “That’s been really disappointing.”
Commercial flights in and out of the Middle East remain heavily disrupted. Aviation analytics firm Cirium reported that more than 29,000 of roughly 51,000 scheduled flights in the region had been canceled as of Friday.
Countries such as Oman, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan have become key departure points because flights are still operating there. However, airspace over Iran, Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Syria remains closed, according to flight-tracking service Flightradar24.
Trenten Higgins, who traveled by taxi from Israel to Jordan, was able to catch a flight from the Jordanian capital and arrive in New York on Thursday.
He said the State Department’s alerts often came too late to be helpful.
“Every alert and every piece of advice they gave was at least a day too late,” Higgins said. “Even when it wasn’t too late, it was almost impossible to act on.”
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