Abu Dhabi: A British boy who refuses to return home via commercial airliners because he is afraid to fly and his father have been granted a rare transit visa by the Saudi Arabian government to return home to the United Kingdom overland.
Anthony Thompson, 63, an aide to former UK deputy prime minister John Prescott, told Gulf News that he has received the green light verbally to pursue an overland trip through Saudi Arabia en route to Egypt.
From Egypt, the father-son duo will travel to Greece and then take the Eurorail link back to England following five failed attempts to get son Joe, 11, to fly a commercial airliner back to the UK from Abu Dhabi.
“I have been told, ‘yes, you will get your visa,’” Thompson said in an interview on Monday. “The rest is in the details. The story has changed and they said we now go.”
Thompson said he received the verbal approval from officials in the Saudi Embassy in London and is now in the process of filing the proper paperwork at the Saudi embassy in Abu Dhabi.
The approval comes after two previous applications to travel overland through Saudi were denied as is routine for a country that is extremely guarded about outsiders entering its borders.
Thompson said he is meeting the “deputy-head of the diplomatic mission in Abu Dhabi and we will sort this out”.
Thompson, whose wife Pauline has already returned to the UK along with the family dog and personal effects, is thankful for the Saudi visa approval.
The former police official is also getting support from unlikely sources.
He confirmed that a major global car manufacturer has offered to help Thompson and his son find their way home.
Thompson said that the “good news is that Volkswagen Middle East has kindly offered to drive us all the way back to the UK from the UAE, providing car and drive. This is an amazing offer and I am meeting VW hopefully today [Monday] in Dubai to sort out the route and logistics. There is quite a lot of planning and the journey will involve some sea travel, but once VW has determined the route/countries I will be back to Abu Dhabi to apply for our visas.”
Once approved, Thompson said they can embark on the 5,000km-plus journey home.
With approval to travel through Saudi, Thompson said he doesn’t believe he will need to resort to booking a sea journey only, an alternative plan that he was working on if all else failed.
