The Foreign Ministry said its emergency helpline was overloaded as it issued a flurry of warnings about travel in the Middle East. Meanwhile Finnair suspended flights until at least Friday.
The aftermath of an Iranian counterattack on Bahrain, in a video filmed by Finnish teacher Nelli Arjanmaa in the capital, Manama, on Saturday.
National air carrier Finnair has cancelled flights to and from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and to Doha in Qatar. At first, the airline scrubbed its weekend flights, saying that the cancellations would affect approximately 1,600 passengers.
Later in the day, it decided to ground flights until at least the end of next week.
“Due to the heightened safety situation in the Middle East, we are suspending our flights to and from Doha and Dubai and cancelling all flights between 28 February and 6 March,” the national airline said on Saturday afternoon.
Ministry issued warnings on Friday
On Saturday, the Finnish Foreign Ministry advised against unnecessary travel to Qatar and the UAE. They are among the countries targeted by that Iranian retaliatory strikes following bombing of Iran by Israel and the United States.
On Friday – before those attacks began – the Finnish Foreign Ministry updated its travel advisories regarding several other countries in the region.
It reiterated advisories urging Finns to avoid all travel to Iraq and the Palestinian Territory and to avoid unnecessary travel to Israel. Meanwhile it advised travellers to “exercise normal caution” in Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait.
The latter two countries were among those hit by apparent Iranian missiles following the strikes on Iran.
Nelli Arjanmaa, a Finnish teacher living in Bahrain, told Yle that there were at least 10 attacks within an hour around midday on Saturday. According to Arjanmaa, one of them hit a US military base about 10km from her home in the Seef district of Bahraini capital, Manama.
Authorities had previously recommended that Finns do not travel to Iran or Syria at all. On Saturday, fatalities were reported due to Iranian strikes on Abu Dhabi and Syria.
The ministry also advises travellers to exercise caution in Morocco, where Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen (NCP) is scheduled to visit on Sunday. It said on Friday that she would meet with her opposite number, Nasser Bourita, in Rabat.
The two are to discuss the situations in the Middle East, the Sahel and Sudan as well as the Western Sahara, a disputed region mostly occupied by Morocco.
Consular helpline overloaded
Ministry officials told the Finnish news agency STT on Saturday that approximately 70 Finns have filed notifications of travel to Iran, while approximately 230 had declared trips to Israel.
Director General of Consular Services Jussi Tanner said on Saturday afternoon that the Foreign Ministry’s emergency phone number was overloaded.
“Please call only in case of an emergency,” he wrote on X.
“Disruptions to air traffic in the Middle East are expected to continue for several days. If your return flight is cancelled, it is advisable to wait on site for the situation to become clearer,” Tanner tweeted.