Foreigners desperate to get out of Iran as hostilities with Israel mount

Chinese, Indian embassies among several that are racing to evacuate their nationals

- Rohini Mohan India Correspondent and Michelle Ng

BENGALURU/BEIJING - Mountaineer Falguni Dey's solo expedition to Asia's highest volcanic summit, Mount Damavand, in Iran has turned into a battle for survival, as the 40-year-old tries to find a way to leave the country now battered by Israel's missile strikes.

A blizzard had forced him to descend from the summit on June 10. Returning to the capital Tehran, he was shocked to find a bombed city and Iranian airspace closed.

Stuck in a transit office in the Iranian town of Astara that borders Azerbaijan, Dr Dey told The Straits Times over a patchy WhatsApp phone call that he is desperate to get back home to his parents, wife and daughter, but is stuck in a web of cross-border bureaucracy.

"I am being told that Azerbaijan requires a special migration code to let me cross the border. It will take 15 days for that to be processed," said the geography professor from Kolkata after a sleepless week, and he is now fast running out of cash.

"I am surrounded by people from a lot of countries. Everyone is trying to get home," he said in one of several WhatsApp voice messages, against a backdrop of panicked voices and what appeared to be prayers.

With Israel-Iran hostilities escalating into a second week, the embassies of China and India - Asia's two most populous nations, each with many citizens in the Islamic republic - are among several racing to evacuate their nationals, especially from Tehran.

Thousands of tourists, pilgrims, students and businessmen are trying to escape, but with Iranian airspace shut, many are turning to land ports with neighbouring countries like Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.