Kalinak: Slovakia Sends Support Team to Oman for Evacuation of Citizens

Bratislava, 6 March (TASR) - A support team sent from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Defence Ministry will assist in the evacuation of Slovak citizens in Oman, Defence Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) said at a press conference on Friday. The decision to send the support team to Oman was taken on Thursday (5 March). The team consists of an air transport specialist, a psychologist and consular staff. "These are people who capable of operating there. They are familiar with the local environment, command necessary language skills and will try to organise everything that's not yet functioning at that moment. And since we do not have a diplomatic mission directly in Oman, we made this temporary deployment of our people there to help," Kalinak explained. He also praised the work of teams at the Defence, Interior and Foreign Affairs ministries, which are working around the clock to get as many people as possible out of an area under military threat. Priority is being given to vulnerable groups such as children and sick people. The defence minister confirmed that a Bombardier aircraft flew to Oman on Friday, while a Spartan aircraft will depart from Jordan. A Slovak Airbus is also scheduled to depart from Muscat, Oman. During the weekend, further evacuations of Slovak citizens from Muscat and Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, are expected. Kalinak warned that repatriation efforts are being complicated by overcrowding at the Muscat airport and difficulties in processing, receiving and departing passengers on repatriation flights. He said other countries are facing the same problem. "Some aircraft sent by other countries had to turn back in the air because they were not granted permission to land due to the overcrowded airport," Kalinak noted. He pointed out that hundreds of thousands of people from various countries are seeking repatriation, while stress and chaos are worsening the situation as a logical consequence of fear caused by the military conflict. Kalinak rejected opposition criticism over the use of smaller aircraft and the higher cost of flights. He recalled that smaller aircraft such as the Bombardier are used to transport people with health problems, smaller groups of individuals or vulnerable groups. "These aircraft are intended for that purpose, and the priority was first to take care of the most endangered people," he said. According to Kalinak, the military Bombardier Global 5000 aircraft has carried out four repatriation flights from the Middle East so far. Slovakia is also facing difficulties obtaining diplomatic overflight permits. "They simply had more aircraft than diplomatic permits. That remains a huge problem even today, because we are not the only ones with citizens there; other countries face the same situation," he added. mf