Global Affairs Canada is warning more than 20,000 Canadians in Lebanon that they cannot rely on government evacuation flights if war engulfs the country.
The department says 21,399 Canadians have officially registered as residents in Lebanon, though it expects there to be many more in the country.
Canada has been urging people to leave Lebanon and not travel there for months, though diaspora groups say many have gone ahead with their travel plans, including visiting relatives. Similar countries that had not yet ordered their citizens to leave have done so in recent weeks, as tensions escalate between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
Canada has been planning for a possible evacuation of its citizens since October last year and has sent military personnel to Lebanon and Cyprus to prepare. However, Canada warns that evacuations are not always possible.
On Wednesday, the government once again urged Canadians to leave Lebanon immediately.
“Some airlines have already temporarily suspended services to Beirut. Further travel disruptions are likely, including airspace closures and flight cancellations and diversions,” the X newspaper said.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly also posted a warning on X. She said Canadian citizens and permanent residents who are in Canada and planning to visit Lebanon should not go, and those currently in Lebanon should return.
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“If tensions escalate, the situation on the ground may not allow us to help them and they may not be able to leave. Please plan accordingly,” Joly said.
Lamia Charlebois, a Lebanese-Montrealer, said many Canadians in Lebanon are having to choose between staying in the country and caring for their elderly parents or returning to Canada early with their children for the start of the school year.
“We are divided … between the homeland and the adopted land, parents and children. That is the problem,” said Charlebois, who runs a Facebook group with more than 13,000 members dedicated to helping Lebanese newcomers in Montreal.
“It’s always the same dilemma. Do you wait a little while and see? Do you stay with your family, take care of your parents, wait a little while and risk being trapped, or do you leave now while you can and leave your parents under the bombs?”
On Tuesday, Israel carried out a rare attack in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, in which it said a senior Hezbollah commander was killed. The commander was allegedly behind a rocket attack over the weekend that killed 12 young men in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.
The Israeli attack killed at least one woman and two children and injured dozens of people.
When Lebanese-Canadians visit Lebanon, it is often not for recreational purposes, Charlebois said, but their anxieties about the country have grown since Oct. 7, with many Lebanese feeling caught up in the conflict involving Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah.
Natasha Feghali, 28, a Canadian-Lebanese activist and educator living in Windsor, Ontario, has family in Lebanon, including some from Canada who are visiting the Middle Eastern country. She said she is increasingly worried about them as tensions rise.
“People I know who are on vacation have already booked tickets to leave early,” he said.
Feghali said summer is typically the peak season for Lebanese Canadians to visit Lebanon. She said she is particularly concerned about her relatives who do not have dual citizenship and will have no choice but to stay if conditions worsen.
“I hope that doesn’t happen,” he said of a full-scale war. “And I’m very concerned that if it did, where would they go?”
Global Affairs Canada said in a statement that “there is never a guarantee that the Canadian government will evacuate Canadians in a crisis situation.”
“Canadians should not be dependent on the Government of Canada for assisted departure or evacuation. Government-assisted evacuations from a foreign country are an option of last resort, when all means of personal and commercial transportation have been exhausted and the safety of its citizens is compromised.”
Canada has recently used military aircraft to extract citizens from crises in Israel and Sudan and take them to nearby countries, where they could afford commercial flights home.
— With files from Joe Bongiorno in Montreal and The Associated Press.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
