Context: During the first ten days of the Middle East war, over 40,000 flights were canceled in the region, affecting more than 7.5 million passengers. The media reported that many tourists are staying at Dubai International Airport for days while waiting for their flights. Some people buy tickets to all possible destinations at once to reach one of them.
Davide Carbonaro and Tomasz Szmydt, the presenters of Międzynarodowe Radio Białoruś (International Radio Belarus), a state-run Belarusian international radio broadcasting and media platform and a subdivision of Belteleradiocompany, claimed that the Polish authorities had allegedly abandoned their citizens in the dangerous region, while Belarus evacuated its own citizens.
“Now, they are still in the Middle East. The Polish authorities have not taken them out because there seems to be no possibility of doing so. <...> Meanwhile, in Belarus, a couple of thousand were evacuated by the authorities, taking into account the situation in the Middle East,” Szmydt said on the program Na Fali Wydarzeń (In the Forefront of Events).
“Right. If Belarus can do it, Poland should also take care of its citizens. But we know it won’t do that. The reason is that Belarus is ruled by a government that cares about its citizens and society,” Carbonaro continued.
These reflections aired on March 10, 2026. By that time, Poland had already facilitated 55 flights transporting Poles from the Middle East. A total of 9,772 people were evacuated from the region. These were not just commercial flights. The Polish authorities sent military planes to pick up citizens in need of medical attention. Two more government aircraft were designated for evacuation flights. Thanks to them, over three hundred people were able to return.
During the same period, 2,360 people returned to Belarus. Belavia carried out 11 flights for this purpose.
