A British family stranded in Israel due to the intensifying conflict with Iran say they face an arduous, expensive and potentially dangerous journey back home if the UK government continues to fail to act.
Barrister Lisa Baker, 51, is stuck with her 15-year-old daughter, Bella, and 78-year-old mother Phyllis Phillips in the northern coastal city of Haifa after their flight home on Sunday was cancelled.
The Israeli government closed its airspace until 23 June after the escalation in the conflict with Iran, which has seen both countries launch deadly air attacks against each other.
On Monday morning, three people in Haifa were among eight killed by Iranian ballistic missiles in a dawn attack.
The UK has no plans to evacuate Britons stranded in Israel, but support has been stepped up in Jordan and Egypt for people who make their way overland.
Ms Baker and her family are staying in a hotel with access to a safe room where they seek shelter when sirens warn of a possible air attack. But they are keen to return to the UK.
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Yet despite registering their situation with the Foreign Office, as requested by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, they say they have had little help in finding a safe passage home.
The latest government advice for British nationals is that three international land border crossings to Jordan and one to Egypt are open “but could close without notice”.
As a result, Ms Baker told The Independent that she was exploring a number of routes to get home, many involving two or three flights.
One route is to travel by land for more than three hours to Amman in Jordan, and then catch a flight to London Stansted, with layovers in Jeddah and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, and Istanbul in Turkey.
That journey is more than 3,700 miles, well over the 2,185-mile distance from Haifa to London.
There are routes with fewer stops, but group ticket costs rise up to £6,000, Ms Baker said, while journeys include overnight layovers in airports such as Beirut in Lebanon.
Ms Baker said: “The nearest airport is Amman in Jordan, but there are no direct flights, instead there are flights back to UK with one, two or three stops, and costing up to £6,000 for us all.
“Then every time we go into a flight, it disappears, presumably because of the demand.
“The journeys also include border crossings that the Foreign Office says could close without notice, and there is the risk flights could stop at an airport we are heading to.
“The UK government needs to act to get British citizens home in safe way. Telling us to use border crossing to a country where there is no guarantee of a safe passage back can mean there is a risk of potential danger.”
Ms Baker questioned why the UK government could not replicate Israel’s action to fly nationals back home, despite the airspace closure.
Poland has also announced an evacuation of around 200 of its citizens in a bus convoy to Jordan, while the Czech Republic and Slovakian governments have organised repatriation flights from the region.
Ms Baker said the Foreign Office should consider putting on a boat service for British nationals in Haifa to reach Cyprus, where direct flights home are available from Larnaca.
“That is a safe passage as it is a country that is safe, and is a route that is not putting us as risk from being in other countries that could be potentially dangerous to be in right now,” she said.
“It is calm here, we are not in bomb shelters, we are in safe rooms,” she added. “It is scary, but it is organised here, with an alert system followed by sirens. There have been attacks in Haifa, we know that, and damage to buildings where people are in safe rooms. There has sadly been a loss of life.
“We want to get home.”
While Bella is missing her GCSE mock exams at her school in Leeds, Ms Baker said she was having to reassign her barrister workload while away.
On Monday, Foreign Secretary David Lammy assured British nationals in Israel that their welfare was the government’s “first priority”. As well as sending a team to Egypt to assist nationals, he said border crossing were being posted on the Foreign Office website.
“British nationals in the region should closely monitor our travel advice for further updates.” he told the Commons.
British nationals in Israel can register their presence with the UK government on this Gov.uk webpage.
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