More than 125,000 British nationals in the Gulf have registered with the Foreign Office, as the UK prepares evacuation plans in response to the US-Israeli war against Iran.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said more than 1,000 British nationals arrived back in the UK on commercial flights from the UAE on Tuesday, with further flights expected “in the coming days”.
Another eight flights were due to leave the UAE on Wednesday, including the first charter flight from Oman, with two more in coming days.
Mr Starmer said that British Airways would add another flight from Oman. He called on MPs to make sure their constituents register their presence in the Gulf with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
British Airways announced it will operate two further flights from Muscat, Oman, to London Heathrow, departing on Friday and Saturday.
“We remain unable to operate flights from Abu Dhabi, Amman, Bahrain, Doha, Dubai and Tel Aviv," the airline said in a statement. The UK government advice has now been updated to note that: "Commercial options are available to depart the region, and if your presence in the UAE is not essential, you may wish to consider departing if you judge you can access these options safely."
The extra flights from Muscat are for BA customers with an existing booking in Oman or the UAE.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Monday that there were about 300,000 British-linked people in Gulf states where US military bases have been attacked by Iranian retaliation after Washington's offensive.
"We are deploying rapid‑response teams to support British nationals," Mr Starmer said. "We are in close contact with our partners, including in the UAE, given the possibility of British nationals needing to leave from there. We are exploring all options for helping our citizens return home as swiftly and safely as possible. Ministers are also engaging directly with airlines."
He added that the focus of the work was to formulate a plan to get people back to the UK as "quickly and as safely as possible". "There's no intention to charge people for that," he said.
British nationals are being advised to follow the instructions of local authorities and monitor the Foreign Office's travel advice, which officials expect to change rapidly. Those in Bahrain, Israel, Kuwait, Palestine, Qatar and the UAE have been urged to register their presence with the Foreign Office online.
An evacuation could be one of the largest in the UK's history, complicated by its scale and the number of countries people might need to leave.
The UK evacuated 15,000 British nationals and eligible Afghans after US withdrawal in 2021 in what is considered the largest operation of its kind to date.
Although the UK has used the registration scheme before to provide urgent updates to people affected by international crises, it has not needed to deal with so many people in so many countries.
Britons can register their presence by filling in a form on the gov.uk website. They need to select which country they are registering from, and then provide an email address and mobile phone number that they have access to, as well as their UK passport number.
Every Briton in a family will need to register separately, such as spouses and children. But the form also asks people to specify whether they have non-British spouses or children with them.
“This is deeply stressful for people because we're talking about a lot of people who are holidaymakers, who were transit passengers just passing through or people on business visits to the region and who we want to make sure can get safely home,” Ms Cooper told BBC Breakfast.
The UK on Sunday granted permission for the US to use its airbases so that it can attack Iran and help defend its Gulf allies, and British citizens, from Iran, Ms Cooper said. She told BBC Radio 4 it was the right thing to do as “ballistic missiles were pointed at hotels in Dubai”.
She said that due to the “reckless” way the Iranian regime had responded to the US strikes – hitting hotels and coming close to UK airbases – the UK now had to act to help defend a region where there are so many British citizens and interests.
Ms Cooper said the UK had received requests from Gulf countries for assistance.
“This is about collective self-defence in the face of Iran’s reckless attacks on countries with so many British citizens and countries not involved in targeting Iran," she told Sky News.
“We continue to believe that we want to seek a negotiated solution, a diplomatic process. We made a deliberate decision not to be involved in the US strikes that took place over the weekend."
Ms Cooper said the government was involved in a “specific limited agreement” with the US to protect the Gulf countries. “Many of those Gulf countries were not involved in any of the strikes on Iran,” she added.
