BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Thousands of Americans are stranded in the Middle East, including a Bakersfield native who is stuck in Qatar during a work trip.
Sean Starkey was in Qatar for a work trip and now he is pleading for help.
In a YouTube video, Starkey said, “My name is Sean and I am an American stranded in Qatar… And so let me answer your questions ahead of time. Yes. I’ve signed up through all the embassy and everything that you’re supposed to sign up for, but they’ve been no help. They told us they were the ones that told us to get a visa and get to Saudi and all the messages that we keep saying, say, get out of Qatar.”
“Yes, I have a return flight that was supposed to return on the 15, but there’s thousands of people stranded in the Doha airport. So I don’t see that happening. Right. So I’m stuck. I don’t know what to do.”
Sean’s wife, Jennifer Starkey, said they lived in Bakersfield their whole lives until almost 10 years ago when they moved to Texas. Jennifer spoke about her frustrations with 17 News on Tuesday.
“He actually was on a job site when an interception occurred. He was in a building. It shook the building that he was in. A second strike happened that was intercepted, and then they evacuated that job site. And they’ve not been back to that job site since. So they’re stranded in a man camp that does not have a bunker for them to use. And they’re relying on, you know, minimal information that they can get.”
Sean and Jennifer said if he ends up staying past the day of his return flight, they worry he will run out of blood pressure medication.
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