'Syrian officials demanded bribes'

Abu Dhabi: As thousands headed by road to Damascus to escape the Israeli military bombardment of Beirut, a group of UAE businessmen on Friday described chaotic scenes at the Lebanon-Syrian border and accused Syrian officials of demanding bribes.

Arriving at Abu Dhabi airport on Friday following an almost two-day journey from Beirut, Abu Mohammad, 36, said he was appalled by what he described as the "blatant corruption" of Syrian border officials and travel agents in Damascus.
 
"Our treatment at the border and by flight ticket agents in Damascus was utterly terrible and completely corrupt," he said.

Like hundreds of the estimated 2,000 UAE nationals in Beirut on Thursday, when the Israeli army began targeting the city's airport and southern suburbs, Mohammad and his party acted on the advice of their embassy and headed for Damascus by car.

He described the situation at the border as chaotic.

"It was chaos at the border. There were queues of people and the officials wouldn't let us pass without us paying bribes," he said, refusing to say how much he paid.

After three hours at the border negotiating with the guards, the group was allowed to continue to the Syrian capital.

Mohammad said the UAE embassy in Damascus was doing all they could to help families onto flights but the pressure of numbers caused panic.

"There were women and children crying. One woman had an asthma attack. It was utter chaos," he said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity at Abu Dhabi airport, a Syrianair representative said the company was doing all it could to repatriate UAE nationals who had travelled by road from Beirut to Damascus.

"We are doing all we can to get UAE nationals back from Syria. Our flights are running efficiently and to their normal schedule," he said.