Around 1,500 Romanians have so far been brought back to the country from the Middle East, and a 189-seat flight on the Riyadh - Bucharest route is now being prepared for people currently in Qatar, who will be transported by land to the Saudi capital, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Andrei Tarnea announced on Saturday.

'In Qatar, we still have around 800 citizens receiving various forms of consular assistance, not only for repatriation. The good news is that we are close to finalizing preparations for assisted repatriation, which involves transferring part of these citizens - those who requested to return - to Saudi Arabia for a Riyadh - Bucharest flight. This includes Romanians who were in Qatar as well as those who arrived there in transit from other destinations and have been stuck for seven days. We have received a significant number of requests, exceeding the capacity of this flight. Although it is a charter, not an evacuation flight, we will try to prioritize urgent cases. The aircraft has 189 seats. We will see how many citizens can board once the flight departs and lands. Ground transport between Qatar and Saudi Arabia is provided by Romanian consular teams, and a mobile consular unit will accompany them to the Riyadh airport,' Tarnea said.

The Ministry spokesperson added that 14,000 Romanian citizens are currently under the Foreign Ministry's monitoring, including about 400 priority cases in the United Arab Emirates.

'We still have a significant number of Romanian citizens - tourists, transit passengers, and residents - under the attention of consular services and the Foreign Ministry's crisis cell. At this moment, around 14,000 citizens are being monitored. Of those who initially contacted the crisis cell or requested assistance, around 1,500 have returned to Romania: over 1,000 through means facilitated by the Romanian state and over 500 by their own means. We still have around 400 priority cases in the UAE alone, mainly in Dubai. There are also priority cases in Qatar and other countries in the region, especially as the continuation of hostilities prompts more Romanian residents and workers to seek assistance,' he said.

Regarding the activation of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, Tarnea stated that 170 Romanian citizens have benefited from evacuation flights through this cooperation facility: 127 arrived Friday on a flight organized by Romania, nine on a flight organized by Cyprus, 16 from Jordan on a Czech flight, two from Oman on a European military cooperation flight, four on a Spanish military flight, and four from Jordan on an earlier Czech evacuation flight. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Eusebi Manolache; EN - writing by: Simona Klodnischi)