Air Transat says it is “deeply sorry” after airline agents wrongfully denied a flight to Canada to a Ukrainian couple fleeing the Russian invasion, leading to their deportation from Greece.
Oksana Koroleva and Leonid Korolev are Ukrainian citizens with Canadian visas who were supposed to come to Canada on an Air Transat flight on Monday from Athens to Toronto.
Volunteers with Ukraine Help Middlesex group, a grassroots group that helps sponsor and resettle Ukrainian refugees in London, Ontario, was supposed to pick them up from Pearson International Airport and then reunite the couple with their son Max Koroleva, who is already in London.
However, his mother and father never left Athens on the Canadian airline. Instead, they were kicked off the flight by Air Transat agents, who wouldn’t let them board because Korolyov holds a Russian passport and doesn’t meet Canadian requirements for a COVID-19 vaccination.
“They won’t go on vacation”
“Air Transat made a mistake. If there was another service agent who knew the rules a little better, he would have been allowed to fly,” Sanya Dammeyer, a volunteer with the group Ukraine Help Middlesex, told CBC News on Tuesday.
Air Transat says it “deeply regrets” that a Ukrainian couple on Canadian visas were deported after airline agents denied them a flight to Canada. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
Dammeyer is referring to a policy under the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET), which gives Ukrainian citizens with a valid Canadian visa through Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) an exemption from Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine requirements for international passengers.
“They’re not tourists. They’re not going on vacation. They’re flying in from a war zone and then they’re being treated like this? It’s horrible. It’s absolutely horrible,” Dammeier said.
“He has a Canadian visa to come to Canada. He is a Ukrainian citizen. He was allowed to come, but the airline staff confused him.”
Instead of abandoning her husband, Koroleva chose to stay with Korolev in Athens.
Max Koroleva said he spoke Tuesday morning with his parents, who do not speak English and were denied access to an interpreter by Greek authorities who met them at the departure gate.
At that point, Max said, Greek police deported them back to Istanbul, the city from which the couple had arrived.
Airline admits ‘mistake on our part’
“For them it’s very disappointing because they were under fire and almost on the front line and they fled the war and right now they’ve been deported from Greece to Istanbul,” Max said.
“They are in a hotel in Istanbul. They have some money for the hotel, but it is not a good hotel. This is an emergency hotel.”
Max said that since his parents were deported on Monday, he has been taking walks to deal with anxiety and feelings of helplessness knowing his parents are trapped in another country.
On Tuesday, Air Transat apologized and said its agents made a mistake at the departure gate when they denied Korolev access to the plane, something they were not authorized to do.
“This situation was indeed an error on our part at the check-in desk,” Bernard Côté, Air Transat’s director of communications, wrote to CBC News in an email on Tuesday.
“While Mr Korolev presented us with a Russian passport, which does not exempt him from Canadian vaccination requirements, Ms Koroleva’s Ukrainian passport should have allowed the couple to board the flight as they are married.
“We are deeply sorry for this situation and for what Mrs. Koroleva and Mr. Korolev had to go through. We are working to quickly change their booking so they can safely land in Canada and are contacting their sponsors directly to arrange their travel.”
Dammeier said Air Transat officials contacted her group on Tuesday about arranging a new flight, and airline officials said they wanted to reroute the couple through Athens, which she said would not work.
“Leonid cannot enter Greece for at least six months,” she said. “Now they are working, hopefully, to put them on a direct flight from Istanbul to Toronto” on Wednesday.
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