Canadians remain stranded across parts of the Middle East as the war involving Iran continues to disrupt travel, grounding flights and leaving some tourists scrambling to find a way home.
Global Affairs Canada says that as of Wednesday, more than 106,000 Canadian citizens and permanent residents are registered in the Gulf region, a number that has been growing since Sunday. Many are tourists whose travel plans were disrupted after the initial strike on Iran last weekend grounded thousands of flights. Most are in Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.
Brothers Kimball and Ravi Sarin are among those caught in the wider disruption. The Canadians were supposed to leave Sri Lanka on Saturday after a month-long vacation, but their flight was cancelled amid the travel chaos.
“We had another flight. We’ve been refused twice at the airport,” Kimball Sarin told Global News.
His brother said the delays are becoming urgent. “I’m on medication and I’m running out. I only have a couple of days’ (worth) left,” Ravi Sarin said.
Ottawa says it has secured a limited number of seats on commercial flights from Beirut and is looking at other options.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said Israel’s Ministry of Tourism is operating buses to the Menachem Begin border crossing between Eilat and Taba, Egypt.
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However, Anand said Global Affairs Canada is not currently offering assisted departures.
Will McAleer of the Travel Health Insurance Association said travellers in affected areas may have limited options.
“That means make sure that you’re understanding how you might be able to get out. Or if you’re in some of the affected areas where they’ve ceased all airline operations, that means you need to sit tight,” he said.
In Doha, where airspace remains closed, Canadians are waiting for conditions to change.
Stephen Lougheed of Queen’s University is with a group of students whose return from a field trip in Sri Lanka was interrupted when their trip home was grounded in Qatar.
“It’s closed air space because there are still missiles and drones flying,” Lougheed said.
The group has been staying in a hotel while considering whether they could leave by land, though Lougheed said the situation can shift quickly. “There have been some lulls in hostilities, but that can change on a dime,” he said.
A Quebec woman told Global she has been calling her sister almost hourly since Sunday after the woman became stranded in Qatar when airspace across the Middle East closed.
Melissa Agathiadis says her sister, Stephanie Agathiadis, was supposed to return home to Quebec on March 2 from a three-week trip to Thailand and Vietnam. Instead, Stephanie and her partner were stuck in Qatar during a stopover after airspace closures.
“Missiles are flying left and right,” Stephanie Agathiadis said.
The Sarin brothers say they have now booked another flight to Toronto through Hong Kong on Friday, though they remain cautious.
“Scared to get too excited about going home yet, but we’re hopeful,” Kimball Sarin said.
The trip back to Canada is expected to take about 35 hours, if it goes ahead as planned.
Dozens of Canadians have managed to leave Iran on their own by crossing the border into neighbouring countries, government officials said late Wednesday, as Ottawa laid out its regional evacuation options amid a “rapidly” deteriorating situation.
With airspace over much of the Middle East closed, officials acknowledged during a technical briefing with reporters that “there is not much we can do at this very moment” to get people out of Iran.
Global Affairs Canada is instead surging additional personnel to consulates in countries bordering Iran to provide visa assistance and other needs to Canadians fleeing the war.
For the rest of the region, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said the government was working on a number of options for getting Canadians out safely, including a “limited number” of chartered flights, block-booking seats on commercial flights, and ground transportation.
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2026-03-04 20:30:24
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