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‘All hands on deck:’ Middle East embassies inundated with citizens stranded in US

Middle East embassies are overwhelmed with calls from citizens trying to return home as COVID-19 spreads in the United States.
An airline employee walks through Reagan National Airport during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Washington, U.S., April 5, 2020.      REUTERS/Joshua Roberts - RC2KYF955PLJ

Diplomats in Washington are working overtime to repatriate stranded citizens worried about the accelerating coronavirus pandemic in the United States. 

“It’s frantic,” said Gabriel Issa, Lebanon’s ambassador to the United States. His embassy in Washington, DC, has set up hotlines to collect the names of Lebanese citizens who want to return home, and a skeleton staff is manning the phones.

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