Photo: Czech Foreign Ministry
The repatriation of Czechs from Israel was successfully concluded on Friday, with a total of 228 citizens returning to the country on six government planes. In addition, the Czech government met Israel’s request for it to fly home Israelis who wish to return to defend their country. I asked the head of the Czech Foreign Ministry’s press department, Daniel Drake, for more details.
“As of 11 o’clock this morning, Czechia ended the repatriation of its citizens from Israel. All Czech citizens who expressed interest in being repatriated to the Czech Republic via government planes, paid for by the government, departed yesterday. The final repatriation flight landed in Prague around 10:40 this morning.”
Was this a logistically demanding mission?
“This was one of the most logistically demanding events in Czech history. I remember the evacuation of people from Afghanistan a couple of years ago and this was a more difficult event in terms of security risks, in terms of the number of flights and people. Back then, it was around 195 Czech people evacuated on three planes, but today we are talking about 230 people on six planes. It was difficult to coordinate and navigate this with various partners. You have to have a flight permit from all the countries you want to fly over. The very first flight that departed from Oman with Minister Lipavský was organized roughly ten hours before it departed, it was very quick and there was not too much time to wait.”
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Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt