Employee Evacuation from Iraq
Recovering two employees from a remote area of Iraq and coordinating their safe onward movement out of the country.
Employee Evacuation | Iraq | Crisis Response
When employees find themselves in a location outside their organisation’s expected travel footprint, providing assistance can require considerably more than arranging a flight. Location, security conditions and available routes may all need to be considered before a safe way forward can be established.
The Requirement
Two Iraqi engineers holding US passports and working for an American company were visiting family in a remote area of Iraq as tensions between the United States and Iran escalated. With reports that Iraqi militia groups were targeting US personnel in the region, their continued presence created an increasingly difficult security situation.
The company had not been aware that the two employees were in Iraq. Once their presence became known, it wanted to support their safe departure from the country. The immediate challenge was not simply arranging onward travel. The employees first needed to be located and recovered from the remote area before a route out of the country could be established.
Our Approach
Stratum Global Risk activated its local capability to locate and recover the two engineers. A local team was deployed to the remote area and brought the employees safely back to Baghdad. From there, a second team coordinated the next stage of their movement towards a neighbouring border. At the border, the engineers were met by a driver who transported them directly to the airport, allowing them to continue their onward journey. The operation required coordination across several stages, with different teams managing the recovery, onward movement and border transfer. Arrangements were adapted around the prevailing security situation and the employees’ location.
The Outcome
Both engineers were successfully recovered from the remote area, moved safely out of Iraq and delivered to the airport for onward travel. The employees had travelled outside the company’s expected footprint. Stratum was nevertheless able to establish a practical route to reach them, recover them to Baghdad and coordinate their onward movement out of the country. The operation demonstrated the importance of having access to local capability when an employee’s location, circumstances or travel arrangements fall outside an organisation’s normal expectations.
More Than Transportation
An employee evacuation can involve considerably more than getting someone from one airport to another. In this case, the operation involved locating personnel in a remote area, coordinating their recovery to Baghdad, establishing a route towards a neighbouring border and arranging onward transportation to the airport. Each stage had to connect with the next. That requires local knowledge, established relationships and the ability to coordinate several moving parts as circumstances develop.
For organisations with employees travelling internationally, the ability to reach people where they actually are can be critical when normal travel arrangements are no longer sufficient.
Operational Capability
Stratum Global Risk provides organisations with travel risk management, crisis response, employee evacuation and operational support across complex environments. Our regional capabilities and international network allow assistance to be coordinated around the circumstances on the ground, whether an employee requires local recovery, cross-border transportation or onward travel arrange
Iraq Travel Risk Management | Medical & Travel Assistance | Evacuation & Crisis Response
Managing Regional Exposure?
Stratum Global Risk supports international organisations with crisis response, evacuation planning and complex personnel movements across the Middle East.