Defence Force planes deploy for Middle East evacuations as 3000 Kiwis stranded
Thursday, 5 March 2026
Kiwis stuck in the war-torn Middle East will be evacuated for free, but it is expected to still take “some days” for help to arrive.
Two Defence Force planes and consular staff will head to the region in preparation for evacuations. More than 3000 people are registered with SafeTravel in the Middle East.
Defence Minister Judith Collins said “many of us suspect it’s probably several thousands more”. However, there was no indication of how many of those were wanting to be evacuated, she said.
Collins said the staff were deployed because it was “important to get ourselves ready … they need to be able to turn on a dime”.
Collins, asked if citizens from Pacific and Commonwealth countries might also be eligible for evacuation by New Zealand, said “we're very clear that if our Pacific neighbours or Commonwealth friends need some help, they should feel free to ask us.”
Read more:
Iran conflict hits NZ meat and seafood exports to Gulf states, more disruption expected
The long and short of it: Iran has set the markets’ fear gauge flashing
The planes with “defensive capabilities” would be able to take up to 80 people at a time and would evacuate people to short-haul destinations where they would be able to take commercial flights back to New Zealand.
The way to New Zealand remains fraught with all flights from Dubai to Auckland cancelled.
Decisions on where the team would be deployed were still to be made but the evacuation point was confidential, Collins said. “You don't want to turn our people into a target.”
She would not give a timeline of when the crew would be arriving, though on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Mfat) website, it said it would take “some days for arrangements to be put in place”.
“If they're going into a particular area, they'll try and take as many people as they can.”
It comes as US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told media on Wednesday (local time) that the US and Israel had “only just begun” their war with Iran – declaring Tehran “is toast, and they know it”.
The war engulfing the Middle East has cleared the skies above it with a gaping hole as flights have continued to be cancelled or rerouted to avoid the area. Most of the airspace across the Middle East remained closed.
A statement released by Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Collins at 2.40am on Thursday said the deployment of consular staff and two NZDF C-130J aircraft was part of a contingency plan to support New Zealanders wishing to leave the Middle East.
Peters described the situation as “fast-moving, dangerous and complex” and the planes were deployed to take people to “less dangerous places where they can make arrangements to come home”.
“We cannot be sure when and how any civilian evacuation operations might be possible, but we want to be ready if and when conditions on the ground make them possible.”
Peters said the Government was also talking to commercial airlines, including the possibility of charter options.
He urged New Zealanders to “shelter in place – or take any safe and practical opportunities that are available to leave the region”.
Do you know someone affected by the conflict and trapped in the Middle East? Email reporters@press.co.nz
The number of people registered on SafeTravel had risen by more than 600 in the last 24 hours to more than 3000 people in the Middle East, he said.
“We’ve been preparing since day one on this matter, but mind you, our day one was to tell people to get out of there because we had a terrible suspicion that this could all go wrong – and it has gone wrong.
“Our teams, defence and foreign affairs, are working around the clock using all their experience to ensure they can intervene to help them in the most safe way possible, so hang on because help is on its way.”
Almost every Middle East country is affected by the conflict: Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar, Iraq, Bahrain, Syria, Oman, Cyprus and Turkey.
SafeTravel recommended New Zealanders avoid government buildings, military sites and facilities, energy infrastructure including oil production facilities, and US embassies and consulates, which could be targeted in future military strikes.
All New Zealanders in the Middle East were urged to register on SafeTravel. Those needing urgent consular assistance should call +64 99 20 20 20.
Major flight disruptions continue
The flight route above Iran was in a bottleneck, restricted by Ukraine’s closed airspace above it, while another busy route went south of the conflict zone through Egypt.
Mfat continued to advise people that the quickest way for New Zealanders to return home would be on commercial flights, once they resume.
A message to New Zealanders in the Middle East from Mfat, obtained by Stuff, said there would be 121 departures from Dubai International Airport on Thursday.
'We would like to reiterate that all airlines and airports continue to stress that passengers should not proceed to the airport unless their airline has confirmed their specific flight is operating.'
PM concerned about impact of war on primary sector
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, visiting the Golden Shears in Masterton on Thursday, said he was hopeful the primary sector had the strength to withstand global impacts such as the wars in the Middle East.
But concerns surrounded whether products could be shipped through the Strait of Hormuz to European customers, where traffic had effectively dried up as a result of the war.
“Todd McClay and myself have hit the world pretty hard to make sure that we create an FTA [free trade agreement] with the GCC [Gulf Co-operation Council] countries and the UAE to make sure that we step up all our relationships in Southeast Asia.”
US torpedo sinks Iranian warship, 87 crew dead
In other developments, the United States says its navy fast-attack submarine used “a single Mark 48 torpedo' to sink an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean.
Sri Lanka’s navy said it recovered 87 bodies and rescued 32 people.
The Iranian vessel was the Islamic Republic’s “prize ship”, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a Pentagon news briefing.
Hegseth said it was the first sinking of an enemy ship with a torpedo by the US since World War II.
Sri Lanka sent ships and air force planes on a rescue mission. By the time navy ships reached the location, there was no sign of the ship and “there were only some oil patches and life rafts. We found people floating on the water”, Navy spokesman Commander Buddhika Sampath said.
He said the 32 people rescued were taken to a hospital in the seaside town of Galle on the Sri Lanka's southern coast. The bodies recovered were being brought to land, he said.
US President Donald Trump has said that one of the US military’s main objectives in the campaign is to wipe out its navy.
Death toll rising, US sending stealth bombers
A US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency has said more than 1000 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, including 165 from an all girls primary school.
The three day funeral ceremony for the late Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been postponed. Iran says it is choosing a new leader.
Almost every Middle East country has been affected in the conflict, even as far as Turkey where an Iranian ballistic missile heading toward its airspace was intercepted.
Britain has changed tack and will allow US B-2 stealth bombers to use its military bases in the Middle East for “specific and limited defensive purposes”, the Telegraph reports.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Wednesday, local time, his government pursued diplomacy to avoid war, but was forced to defend itself after US and Israeli attacks.
Ahead of the conflict, which began five days ago, Iran had faced two months of protests against the government. Thousands of people died in the demonstrations as a result of a government crackdown.
Iran’s judiciary chief has threatened “those who say or do anything” in support of the US-Israeli airstrike campaign “are on the enemy’s side and must be dealt with on revolutionary, Islamic principles and in accordance with the time of war” – raising the possibility of death-penalty charges.