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Christian Walker of Prairieville, Louisiana, has been in Dubai for two weeks while on a family vacation with his two young children and pregnant wife.
Walker told Fox News Digital he has heard missiles and drones getting shot down at night — and the activity has been shaking his hotel as he’s been trying to find a flight for his family to evacuate.
The officials “urge you to get out, but there’s no way out, and then you call the number, and they say that they’re not evacuating U.S. citizens at the time … [and] to contact your airline,” said Walker.
He said that pretty much every morning, he’s called and spent “about two hours on the phone with [the] airline” trying to rebook his flight — and then “flights [get] canceled later that day.”
Walker said he’s gone through the “proper channels.” He has registered through the Embassy and has called the State Department, he said.
A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital earlier that the department has facilitated the safe return of over 20,000 American citizens from the Middle East since Feb. 28.
There were approximately 8,500 arrivals this past Wednesday, with thousands more that have transitioned to safe havens in Europe and Asia or who remain in active transit, according to the spokesperson.
Walker said that many Americans have been evacuating through Oman, which is about a five-hour drive from Dubai.
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“There are a lot of unknown variables, and I’m not very confident with taking a one- and three-year-old [child] across the border [without a guaranteed flight], or how that could all go with getting there to the border with the hotel,” said Walker.
“We find it’s better to be safer [and] stay put than just be at the mercy of the airline opening and getting the flight out,” he said a few days ago.
The U.S. has urged Americans to leave 14 countries across the Middle East as Iran’s counterattacks intensify.
An Iranian drone strike landed near the U.S. Consulate in Dubai but was not a direct hit on the facility itself on Tuesday – Walker’s hotel is about a mile away.
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Walker said his hotel was connected to a mall, so he hadn’t needed to go outside the hotel.
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“It’s connected to a mall, and [there’s] a store similar to a Walmart — so we were able to get baby diapers and wipes, and kind of stroller around the mall,” he said.
Ahead of this weekend, Walker said he had a flight booked for Saturday with Emirates — but indicated he would “believe it when [he] sees it” in terms of evacuating his family.
Americans in the Middle East who are in need of assistance have been advised by officials to call the U.S. Department of State.
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