Just a few more hours and the 15 Italians stranded on the island of Socotra, in Yemen, should be able to return home: the return flight to the Emirates is scheduled for tomorrow, 5 May. This was announced by Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani: “I’m confident, now we’re waiting, but I hope that tomorrow morning the plane will leave to take them home”. However, he then recalled that the group of tourists had “imprudently chosen, even against the indications of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to go on holiday in that country”, reiterating “the invitation to read what is written on the Ministry’s website of Foreign Affairs where there are all the indications of the various countries of the world”. The group – made up of people from Milan, Bergamo, a person from Rimini and some from Veneto – left Abu Dhabi on 23 April with the only weekly flight to the island. Due to the civil war that has been going on for years now and the resulting difficulties on flights, together with bad weather conditions, none of them were able to return on schedule.
“We are stranded but not in danger”
There have been no reports of particular risks faced by tourists. “We are blocked, but not in danger,” a tourist told her relatives via WhatsApp. “The flights – she added – were blocked exclusively for political reasons, but this is a quiet place. This community is welcoming. We are not missing anything.” Socotra, like the rest of Yemen, remains a destination explicitly not recommended on the website of the Farnesina Crisis Unit ‘Viaggiare Sicuri’. Although the Italian embassy has no longer been operational in the country since 2015, several Italians are continuing to purchase travel packages to reach the island.
