Currently, there are still more than 2,000 Singaporeans remaining in the Middle East. As commercial flights have gradually resumed, Singapore does not have plans to arrange additional evacuation flights at this time.
According to a report by Lianhe Zaobao on the 12th, Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan revealed these numbers in a recent written reply to several MPs' inquiries. He emphasized that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' travel advisory for the Middle East remains in effect and unchanged, urging citizens to postpone all trips to the region.
However, there are still more than 2,000 Singaporeans, who have registered electronically via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' website, remaining in the Middle East region.
As for how the government is assisting Singaporeans who choose to stay in the Middle East, Balakrishnan stated that Singapore's overseas embassies and consulates continue to maintain close contact with them, keeping them informed of the latest developments on the ground.
Jabir, a 21-year-old Singaporean student, is a fourth-year student at Kuwait University. In an interview with Lianhe Zaobao on the 12th, he said that since the US and Iran announced a two-week ceasefire on April 8, there have been no sirens for drone or missile attacks, and Kuwait is currently quite stable.
Since the outbreak of conflict in the Middle East on February 28, Iran came under joint military action from the US and Israel, and immediately launched retaliatory strikes on Israel and Gulf states. Kuwait also experienced attacks earlier on, but the region where Jabir is located has remained relatively calm. Before the ceasefire, he only needed to seek shelter in an air-raid bunker once, when the siren sounded for an extended time.
"Since the conflict broke out, apart from working and studying from home, life has been mostly normal here—people still go out as usual... I feel relatively safe here. Now that I am just over a month away from graduation, I plan to stay here until I complete my studies."
Kuwait's airspace remains closed at present. Although neighboring Saudi Arabia has resumed flights, Jabir hopes that when he graduates in June, Kuwait's airspace will reopen so he can take a direct flight back to Singapore.
618 Citizens, Permanent Residents, and Family Members Safely Evacuated
As commercial flights were temporarily suspended in March due to the Middle East conflict, the Singaporean government arranged two commercial flights and then dispatched two military aircraft to safely bring back Singaporeans stranded in the Middle East from Muscat (Oman), Riyadh and Jeddah (Saudi Arabia).
Singaporean overseas embassies and consulates also arranged 13 land bus trips to transport Singaporeans in the UAE, Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar, and Kuwait to the evacuation flight departure points.
Balakrishnan wrote in his reply that a total of 618 Singaporean citizens, permanent residents, and their family members were safely evacuated and returned from the Middle East. The remaining seats on the evacuation flights were offered to 84 foreign nationals from Australia, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam.