To date, the government has brought 674 of the 2,000 Brazilians who expressed interest in leaving the country
The 4th FAB (Brazilian Air Force) flight that will repatriate Brazilians in Lebanon arrived at Beirut airport, the country’s capital. According to the organization, the KC-30 landed at 9:30 am this Friday (Oct 11, 2024) in the Middle East, 4 hours after taking off from Lisbon, in Portugal, where it had been since Thursday (Oct 10).
The transport of Brazilians and their families is part of Operation Raízes do Cedro, which has already moved 674 passengers and 11 pets on the first 3 repatriation flights. According to aeronautics, it will be continuous. The 1st flight landed in Brazil on October 6th, the 2nd on October 8th and the 3rd on October 10th. The number of people who will board this last flight has not yet been announced.
According to Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, 7,000 people in Lebanon showed interest in coming to Brazil. However, he estimates that 3,000 will actually be repatriated. According to Itamaraty, the majority go to São Paulo and Paraná – where the country’s two largest Arab colonies are located.
SHIPPING VALUE
In this Friday, the government made available R$ 80,401,340 for the Ministry of Defense to transport Brazilians in the Middle East. Calculation made by Power360 points out that the cost could be 3 times lower if Planalto chose to pay for plane tickets for Brazilians who are in Lebanon on commercial flights. In this scenario, the amount spent would be R$21,758,000.
The calculation was based on the ticket from Beirut to São Paulo costing R$7,253, the lowest value found by the digital newspaper this Friday through a Google flight search tool. The cost was multiplied by the estimated total of 3,000 tickets.
The value of R$80.4 million includes all operating costs, such as gasoline and aircraft maintenance. It was not stated whether this was the cost of the 3 flights already carried out or whether it includes others to come.
THE Power360 contacted Planalto via email and messaging app to ask whether the government considered purchasing tickets on commercial flights to repatriate Brazilians – and thus reduce operation costs –, and if so, what was the reason to discard this option. Finally, consider purchasing tickets on commercial flights in order to save public money. There was no response until the publication of this report. The text will be updated if a statement is sent to this digital newspaper.
CONFLICT IN LEBANON
Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group have been fighting on the border since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip in October 2023, after an attack by Hamasan ally of the Lebanese extremist group.
The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah intensified after 2 attacks on communication devices used by the extremist group in September this year. Lebanon accuses the Jewish country, which denies responsibility.
Tensions escalated further after Israel to throw a major air raid on September 23 and trigger an evacuation of Lebanese. Another Israeli attack the next day raised the death toll to 558. The country claims the operations target Hezbollah leaders.
Since then, the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) has been carrying out daily attacks on locations that, according to the military, are linked to the extremist group Hezbollah. These are the most intense air attacks in almost a year of conflict in the region.
FAB CRITERIA
According to the government of president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), Brazilians chosen to be on flights from Lebanon to Brazil would have to meet some criteria. Elderly or disabled people, pregnant women, sick people or anyone who does not have the resources to buy a plane ticket on a commercial flight would be some of the requirements.
So far, the Minister of Defense, José Múcio Monteiro, has not disclosed the detailed costs of a similar FAB operation in October 2023 (after the Hamas attack on Israel), when Brazilians who were in the Jewish country were brought to Brazil on flights officers. There are no clear statistics on how many were repatriated from Israel, the cost of travel and whether all those benefited in fact could not afford to leave the country on commercial flights.
OTHER COUNTRIES
Some countries do like Brazil and send military planes to Lebanon to facilitate the exit of their citizens from that country.
There are cases in which countries work to ask commercial companies to increase the supply of seats on career flights.
You United Statesfor example, estimate that there are 86,000 citizens living in Lebanon (in comparison, there are around 21,000 Brazilians in that country). So far, the White House has only sent soldiers to Cyprus to help evacuate people, but has not sent military planes to carry out repatriation. The US government, according to the State Department, has talked to companies airlines to increase flight frequency and offer more seats for Americans.
THE United Kingdom decided to charter commercial planes to help the British leave Beirut. Second informed the BBCthe priority was couples with children under 18 and vulnerable people. But the benefit is not free: to get on the flight, each passenger has to pay a fee of 350 pounds per seat –around R$2,500. In 2023, the British government had already done something similar, charging a fee to each citizen who wanted to leave Israel when the Jewish country was attacked by Hamas.
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