A total of 90 Greek citizens were repatriated on Thursday evening via a special C-130 flight arriving from Dubai, with the plane landing at a military airbase west of Athens.

Among the passengers were parents, relatives and chaperones of athletes from the Aris Thessaloniki U-18 basketball team, who had been stranded in Abu Dhabi after flights from the UAE’s capital were canceled.

“We hadn’t slept for five days. Thank you to the Hellenic Air Force,” one of the relatives of the repatriated Greek citizens said.

The first repatriation flights for Greek citizens and their families from the Middle East took place earlier this week as part of an evacuation plan presented by the foreign ministry.

Earlier, 93 Greek citizens and their relatives returned from Oman via a special Aegean Airlines flight. The flight was organized with the assistance of the Greek Embassies in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi.