{"id":511987,"date":"2026-03-03T17:07:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T17:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/511987\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T17:07:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T17:07:20","slug":"dont-rely-on-ottawa-for-help-fleeing-iran-war-feds-tell-canadians-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/511987\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Don\u2019t rely\u2019 on Ottawa for help fleeing Iran war, feds tell Canadians – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canadians in the Middle East are being told to make plans that \u201cdon\u2019t rely\u201d on the Government of Canada as the U.S. and Israel\u2019s war with Iran<\/a> escalates.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There are roughly 97,000 Canadian citizens and permanent residents registered in the region, Global Affairs Canada said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Canadians are being told to \u201cavoid all travel\u201d to Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen and to avoid non-essential travel to Jordan, Oman and Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur ability to provide consular services to Canadians during an active conflict is limited, with priority given to provision of essential services such as the processing of travel documents,\u201d GAC said in a Tuesday morning update.<\/p>\n

\u201cCanadians in an affected country should prepare contingency plans that don\u2019t rely on the Government of Canada\u2019s assistance for departure,\u201d the department added.<\/p>\n

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The update added, however, that GAC will share information with Canadians registered in the region as soon as air travel and\/or land crossings are available.<\/p>\n

As of Tuesday, GAC said it was not aware of any Canadians who have been injured or killed because of the hostilities.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:40
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMiddle East war spreads as U.S., Israel expand strikes on Iran\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The actual number of Canadians in the region is likely higher, since registration with GAC is voluntary.<\/p>\n

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Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.<\/p>\n

Iran alone had almost 3,000 Canadians registered with GAC, but the highest number was in the United Arab Emirates (24,594).<\/p>\n

GAC sends regular updates to registered Canadians and urges them to remain alert to these messages and to follow the advice of local officials.<\/p>\n

The U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran and Iran\u2019s subsequent retaliation have triggered global flight disruptions.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Tens of thousands of people are stranded across the Middle East as the Iran war spreads throughout the region.<\/p>\n

Air Canada cancelled flights to Israel and Dubai until March 22, with service scheduled to resume on March 23.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are monitoring the situation and will adjust our schedule accordingly,\u201d the airline said.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tEuropean, Asian countries evacuate\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tWhy is Iran attacking Middle East countries after U.S.-Israel strikes?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tB.C. to adopt permanent daylight saving time, after springing forward one more time\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Several European and Asian countries have already begun evacuating their citizens from affected regions.<\/p>\n

Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger announced that a repatriation flight carrying Austrians would depart on Wednesday from the Omani capital Muscat. The minister said a first evacuation flight carrying \u201cparticularly vulnerable individuals\u201d already took off Sunday.<\/p>\n

Nearly 18,000 Austrian citizens are registered in the region, authorities said.<\/p>\n

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Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene also said her country will commence the evacuation of \u201cthe most vulnerable groups of Lithuanian citizens\u201d from the United Arab Emirates and other surrounding states.<\/p>\n

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Tuesday that Poland had prepared planes for an evacuation in case the situation in the region worsens.
He estimated there are 14,000 Polish citizens in the United Arab Emirates, and a total of 400,000 people from the EU there.<\/p>\n

More than 480 Polish citizens have already managed to leave Israel, Jordan and Lebanon, Tusk said.<\/p>\n

South Korean officials say they evacuated 62 nationals from Israel to Egypt by bus, following the earlier evacuation of 23 Koreans from Iran.<\/p>\n

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The South Korean Foreign Ministry said Tuesday it also evacuated four Americans of Korean descent from Israel.<\/p>\n

Thailand will evacuate 300 nationals from Iran, including its diplomats there, overland via Turkey.<\/p>\n

Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said Tuesday that the evacuees were expected to be transported to a border city in Turkey as soon as possible before flying back to Thailand.<\/p>\n

Thai officials said there were about 100,000 Thai nationals living and working in the Middle East, including 60,000 Thai citizens in Israel.<\/p>\n

The prime minister said about 1,000 Thai citizens in the United Arab Emirates had registered to be repatriated and they could fly back on normal commercial flights. However, the government would also prepare to transport its citizens to other countries if the airspace is closed.<\/p>\n

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\u2013with files from Associated Press<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canadians in the Middle East are being told to make plans that \u201cdon\u2019t rely\u201d on the Government of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,5897,202944,20739,3275],"class_list":{"0":"post-511987","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-iran","11":"tag-iran-war","12":"tag-ottawa","13":"tag-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}