Pensioners Jan-Owe and Mirijam Ingelsbo from Skövde are stranded on the Maldives due to Middle East conflicts that have closed Doha airport. They were set to fly home on Wednesday but must now wait in Malé for two nights before possibly departing on Friday. The couple worries their medications will run out during the delay.
Jan-Owe Ingelsbo, 69, and his wife Mirijam Ingelsbo, 70, from Skövde spent ten days on vacation on Fihalholi island in southern Maldives. They booked the trip through Hummingbird travel agency and were scheduled to fly home on Wednesday via Doha in Qatar to Gothenburg through London. However, due to conflicts in the airspace around Iran and the Persian Gulf, Doha international airport is closed, stranding many travelers, including Swedes.
The couple has been informed by the agency to leave the island and travel to the capital Malé, where they will stay in a hotel for two nights. They then hope to fly on Friday via Doha to London and return to Sweden on Saturday. "Now it looks like we'll have to go up to the capital Malé. Then wait there two nights at a hotel. Hopefully we can fly via Doha on Friday to London. And home on Saturday, so it'll be a really long trip," Jan-Owe Ingelsbo tells Dagens Nyheter.
They express unease about the conflict. "The warlords are warring and such. It messes things up for ordinary people," Jan-Owe Ingelsbo states. The couple is grateful they did not travel earlier and risk getting stuck in Doha or Dubai, where the situation is more intense. "We're thankful we didn't leave a couple of days ago and get stuck in Doha or Dubai, where it's booming a lot now. So we've been lucky in that regard," he adds.
A concern is their medications, including blood pressure and heart drugs. "We don't have unlimited amounts of it. So we hope it will last. But when we get to Malé we can probably get more medications there," Jan-Owe Ingelsbo says. He notes it could take two days to obtain medications on the Maldives and be expensive, but as pensioners, the couple takes it in stride. Uncertainty remains about Doha's reopening, and they do not know if the trip will be delayed further.