Irish man stranded in UAE says consular response has been 'copy and paste'

Vivienne Clarke

An Irish man who is currently stranded in the United Arab Emirates with his wife, who is 17 weeks pregnant, and extended family has cautioned the public, “Don’t believe everything you see on the internet.”

Aaron Bannon Whelan also said he and his family felt they were stuck in no-man’s land as the consular responses they have received so far “were kind of copy and paste”.

He described as “absolutely mental” the suggestion that his pregnant wife and her 91-year-old grandfather should be expected to get on a lengthy bus journey to get to Oman for a chartered flight back to Ireland.

“We've sent multiple emails, and my mother at home has rang every available embassy and helpline, and just we're not really getting any responses back from anybody, just a few generic ones here and there, and everything just seems to be kind of copy and paste, so we kind of feel like we're stuck in no man's land here, because no one's reached out really to kind of say look we're on it.”

Mr Bannon-Whelan said they had seen the announcement about the chartered flight from Oman, but they had not received any specific information.

“To me, that's absolutely mental. I don't know what decision was made to do that, because for me to put a 17-week pregnant woman and a 91-year-old on a bus on a good day, seven and a half hours to Oman, and not have the guarantee of getting a flight out, because they're not all getting out.

"There are queues at the airport, how many other thousands of people from different countries are getting told the same thing, I just thought it was an absolutely outrageous statement to come out with, to say leave where you are and flee to this country that we know nothing about.

“I will definitely not be going to Oman”.

The embassy had “been more than lacklustre” in terms of communication. “They know who is here. We filled out the form that they've asked everyone to fill out, and the only response I got back was confirming my date of birth.

“I understand that (embassy staff could be overwhelmed), but I suppose the day or two days after, on Monday, when the embassy was supposed to be open, we just got word that it was closed, and here's a helpline, and we can't ring this helpline because Irish numbers can't call while we're in the UAE.”

Mr Bannon-Whelan said he was “quietly confident” about getting a flight later in the week.