Only individual Finns remain to be repatriated from Lebanon

Press release 264/2006
28 July, 2006

Finland has continued to repatriate Finnish citizens because of the Lebanon conflict that has continued for more than two weeks. At the same time, the scope of operations has shifted from groups to individual cases. During last week, only a few Finns have contacted the Finnish officials in Lebanon informing about their wish to return home. On the other hand, some of the Finns have still estimated that they want to stay in the country, at least for the time being. The number of those wanting to return home may still rise in case the military action increases.

Close end regular consular cooperation and exchange of information between the EU countries still continues under Finnish guidance. According to current estimates, the EU countries have repatriated about 30,000 EU citizens. How to guarantee safe transit of EU citizens from Lebanon into their home countries still remains the key challenge for Finland as as well the other EU member states.

According to Cypriot authorities, the pressures caused by transit of people arriving from Lebanon to Cyprus to further destinations have now dissipated. That is why, for the time being, no request has been made for Finland to deploy the Finnair aircraft kept in readiness for such transit needs.

As the EU President, Finland is going to organise and extraordinary foreign minister meeting of the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council in Brussels on Tuesday, 1 August.

Further information: Counsellor Juha Markkanen, Department for Communications and Culture, GSM +358 9 1605 5836 (general situation), Deputy Director General Marcus Laurent, Legal Department, tel. +358 9 1605 5701 (consular affairs).