Reaching Iran difficult for relatives of victims

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This article was published 09/01/2020 (1715 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — This week’s plane-crash tragedy has made it even harder for Winnipeggers to reach Iran, with limited flights impeding Canadians from attending funerals and repatriating their deceased relatives.

“The family members and the friends of the victims, who were planning to go to Iran for their funerals — and to just get the bodies of their loved ones — are now scared to go, because they don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Younes Zangiabadi, research director for the Iranian-Canadian Congress (ICC).

“It’s been really stressful for the community, especially the ones who lost their loved ones.”

Of the 176 killed Wednesday aboard a Ukraine International Airlines flight, 138 were travelling from Tehran to Toronto on one of the few routes available between Canada and Iran.

One of Zangiabadi’s friends lost his mother in the crash, and hasn’t been able to get ahold of his father since then. The man tried to reach Tehran, making it to Europe but was unable to find a continuing flight to Iran after airlines cancelled routes over reports a missile may have downed the plane.

But even before this week’s news, there were few options for Canadians trying to reach Iran.

A search of flights from Winnipeg to Tehran show return trips this spring starting around $1,200. Zangiabadi said flights from Toronto start at that price, but can rise to as high as $2,000, with routes passing through Frankfurt, Vienna, Dubai or Doha.

Flights were advertised at less than $1,000 three years ago, but have risen in recent years as airlines abandoned routes to Iran. That’s largely due to increasing American sanctions making it difficult for European companies to operate in Iran, Zangiabadi said from Toronto.

He has previously flown on the same route to Tehran via Kyiv, which was generally the cheapest option; Zangiabadi said that’s likely why so many of the dead were students.

The ICC has lobbied Ottawa to help establish a direct flight between Canada and Iran, but made little progress. Zangiabadi believes there hasn’t been a direct flight to Iran from either Canada or the United States since that country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, despite a large Iranian diaspora in Toronto and Edmonton.

But the ICC’s larger concern is getting Ottawa to restore diplomatic relations with Iran, after the Harper government severed ties in 2012. On Friday, Iran granted visas for two Canadian officials to enter the country, which encouraged Zangiabadi, though he said Canada should have re-established its embassy in Iran years ago.

“At the end of the day, you have diplomatic relations with countries you disagree with,” he said. “If you just cut relations and cannot engage, then you’re not influential and you cannot help out your citizens or protect your interests.”

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca