‘Everyone’s been sending each other resources because, quite frankly, the US has not done a single thing in any capacity,’ a traveller says
Alyssa Ramos’ evacuation from Kuwait took 48 hours and carried her across four continents. The US government did not help with any part of it, the travel blogger said.
“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.”
She said she repeatedly messaged the US embassy in Kuwait before being directed to the consular section, which told her it could not help her leave the country and advised her to enrol in the US smart traveller programme and shelter in place.
Ramos is among the many travellers who found themselves stranded in the Middle East and beyond after Israeli-US attacks on Iran almost a week ago rapidly entangled more than a dozen nearby countries. Since then, US citizens have described frustrations and growing fear as they encountered closed airports, cancelled flights and confusing US government guidance while Poland, Australia, France and other countries moved quickly to send military or chartered planes for their citizens.
As of Friday, about 27,000 Americans have returned to the US since the war began on February 28, the State Department said. The vast majority of them made their own way out without US government help.
Chicago resident Susan Daley, who became stranded while on a work trip in the United Arab Emirates, arrived in the US on Thursday aboard the first commercial flight from Dubai to San Francisco since the conflict started.
Source: News - South China Morning Post
