Balkans | The United Kingdom is stepping up its efforts to evacuate its citizens from Greece due to the fires

UK airlines are speeding up evacuation flights to turn away thousands of British tourists from the islands of Rhodes and Corfu because of the fires in Greece.

While bushfires persisted on Rhodes and Corfu, Greece, thousands of British tourists holidaying here have flown home with emergency repatriation flights.

More flights are expected today as planes carrying British nationals landed at airports in Gatwick, Heathrow, Stansted, Birmingham and Bristol yesterday.

While some airlines have canceled commercial flights to evacuate British tourists trapped in the region by the fires, flights to Rhodes have continued despite travel warnings from the British Foreign Office for citizens. There were 26 flights from UK airports to Rhodes yesterday.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak urged vacationers to stay in touch with tour operators.

It is estimated that there are around 10,000 British citizens on the island of Rhodes.

The largest eviction ever carried out in Greece

And while the wildfires that broke out a week ago on the island of Rhodes continued to spread uncontrollably, 19,000 people were evacuated from the area on the night of July 23. “This is the largest evacuation ever carried out in the country,” said a statement from Greece’s Climate Ministry.

Authorities have increased the fire risk to category 5, the highest in the entire eastern part of central and southern Greece, on the islands of Euboea and Rhodes.

To combat the ongoing forest fires in Greece, two amphibious firefighting aircraft and a firefighting helicopter belonging to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry arrived in Athens on July 22, with a flight crew of nine, on the instructions of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

AA