Belgium’s Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot told Parliament on 3 March that a joint crisis cell with the Defence Ministry has begun planning emergency flights to repatriate the roughly 26,000 Belgian nationals currently caught up in the spiralling Iran-Israel conflict. About 2,500 of those affected are short-term tourists – many on business stopovers in Dubai and Doha – who became stranded after large parts of Middle-Eastern airspace closed at the weekend.
According to Prévot, the operation will combine chartered commercial wide-bodies with Belgian Air Force A400M transports once over-flight guarantees can be secured. Brussels is coordinating with Luxembourg and other EU partners on landing slots, diplomatic clearances and shared passenger manifests. Officials warned, however, that arranging safe ground transport to functioning airports in the Gulf and Levant remains the main bottleneck, and the first extraction flights are unlikely to depart before the end of the week.
![Belgium prepares military-assisted airlift to bring citizens home from Middle East]()
Amid the fluid flight situation, Belgian nationals and employers can also tap VisaHQ’s Brussels portal (https://www.visahq.com/belgium/) for up-to-date entry rules, transit visa options and rapid document processing. The service aggregates official notices and provides tailored guidance, helping stranded tourists and business travellers line up the paperwork needed for alternative routings or onward evacuation.
The minister urged travellers to register via the Travellers Online portal so that consular teams can issue rendez-vous instructions at short notice. In the interim, Belgians have been told to pursue commercial re-routing options, keep accommodation receipts for possible reimbursement and avoid non-essential movements inside the region.
For corporate mobility managers the episode is a stark reminder to maintain up-to-date employee tracking and to verify evacuation clauses in travel-risk insurance. Companies with staff on rotation in Gulf energy projects or Israel’s tech sector should prepare for prolonged rota disruptions and review remote-work contingencies until scheduled services stabilise. The government’s decision to activate military assets also underscores the seriousness of the security environment and could influence insurers’ risk ratings – with knock-on costs for business travel into neighbouring markets.
According to Prévot, the operation will combine chartered commercial wide-bodies with Belgian Air Force A400M transports once over-flight guarantees can be secured. Brussels is coordinating with Luxembourg and other EU partners on landing slots, diplomatic clearances and shared passenger manifests. Officials warned, however, that arranging safe ground transport to functioning airports in the Gulf and Levant remains the main bottleneck, and the first extraction flights are unlikely to depart before the end of the week.
Amid the fluid flight situation, Belgian nationals and employers can also tap VisaHQ’s Brussels portal (https://www.visahq.com/belgium/) for up-to-date entry rules, transit visa options and rapid document processing. The service aggregates official notices and provides tailored guidance, helping stranded tourists and business travellers line up the paperwork needed for alternative routings or onward evacuation.
The minister urged travellers to register via the Travellers Online portal so that consular teams can issue rendez-vous instructions at short notice. In the interim, Belgians have been told to pursue commercial re-routing options, keep accommodation receipts for possible reimbursement and avoid non-essential movements inside the region.
For corporate mobility managers the episode is a stark reminder to maintain up-to-date employee tracking and to verify evacuation clauses in travel-risk insurance. Companies with staff on rotation in Gulf energy projects or Israel’s tech sector should prepare for prolonged rota disruptions and review remote-work contingencies until scheduled services stabilise. The government’s decision to activate military assets also underscores the seriousness of the security environment and could influence insurers’ risk ratings – with knock-on costs for business travel into neighbouring markets.
