By IRNA,
London : Britain Thursday urged its nationals to leave Bahrain immediately unless they had a pressing need to stay following Foreign Secretary William Hague speaking with his Bahraini counterpart as security forces with tanks moved in on anti-government protesters.
The UK Foreign Office said Britons should leave via Bahraini International Airport on commercial flights on Thursday, while the government were sending charter flights to Dubai to help with the evacuation.
Special arrangements were made with UAE immigration authorities to allow UK nationals and their dependants to pass through the country who have confirmed onward tickets to Britain, it said.
In its latest travel advice on Wednesday, the Foreign Office warned British nationals, without a pressing need to remain, to prepare to leave Bahrain.
In a short statement, Hague said that he told Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohamed al-Khalifa that he remained “seriously concerned” at the situation on the ground in Bahrain and urged restraint on all sides and the need for a return to law and order to enable genuine political reform.
Prime Minister David Cameron also telephoned King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa of Bahrain to end the violent suppression of street protests and for restraint from all sides in the escalating stand-off.
Amnesty International accused security forces in Bahrain of “systematic use of excessive force” in cracking down against protesters last month in a report entitled Bloodied but Unbowed: Unwarranted State Violence against Bahraini Protesters based on first-hand testimonies.
‘It is alarming to see the Bahraini authorities now again resorting to the same tactics that they used against protesters in February but on an even more intensive scale,” said Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa director Malcolm Smart.
“It appears that the government has decided that the way to deal with protests is through violent repression, a totally unsustainable position and one which sets an ominous example in a region where other governments are also facing popular calls for change.’ Smart warned.