The U.S. Department of State has announced that approximately 9,000 American citizens residing in the UAE have chosen to remain in the country, despite offers from the U.S. government for organized evacuation flights.
In a statement by Dylan Johnson, Assistant Secretary of State for Global Public Affairs, the department indicated that they reached out to thousands of Americans in the UAE to provide them with seats on government-arranged evacuation flights. However, many of these flights departed with vacant seats due to low demand.
The official mentioned that commercial air travel availability in the region has gradually improved, prompting the State Department to reduce its operations for chartered evacuation flights and ground transportation services initiated in response to the regional crisis.
The State Department noted that the decreased demand for evacuation services, along with the success of previous operations, means that this will be the final daily update regarding evacuation efforts, although further updates will be provided as necessary.