A young Paraguayan who has volunteered in Israel for a year tells what he went through to return to the country. He highlighted the support of the Paraguayan authorities so that he can return home safely and be reunited with his family. who is very depressed by the clashes taking place in the Middle East.

This is Javier Poggi, who has been volunteering in the city of Acre since January 2022 and has eight months left to complete his work in the country.However, he took the decision to return because his parents and family were very concerned about the conflict developing in the area.

“The city of Acre where I live in the north of the country is quite far from the conflict zone in the Gaza Strip, about six hours away by car. The life I was in was very calm“Everything was normal, but I made the decision to return for the sake of my family and to avoid further worries for them,” the young man explained in an interview with La Nación/Nación Media.

He explained that the flight he took to return was the only Paraguayan flight among more than 100 Ecuadorians and they left Tel Aviv on a commercial charter flight to Madrid, Spain. “I am very grateful to the director of the National Secretariat of Returned Refugees, Guillermo Osorio, because he contacted me in the first place and also to Lucas Franco, charge d’affaires in Israel, who always accompanied me.“, he has stated.

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Javier explained that he had traveled almost two days (48 hours) to be reunited with his family. “I left Haipa around 10:00 am on Sunday, October 15, and took a train to arrive at the airport in Tel Aviv just after noon for a humanitarian flight., hosted by the Ecuadorian government. “All this time I was accompanied by Lucas Franco, Paraguay’s charge d’affaires,” he said to LN.

He added that the flight was taken after 19.00, then arrived at Madrid airport where they experienced several setbacks, because they did not get off the plane because it was a humanitarian flight. “In four hours we arrived in Madrid and We had planned a stopover at 1:50, to load fuel and change crew. This stopover time was extended until 03.40, on the plane which is a repatriation mechanism“, he pointed out.

After inconveniences in Europe, the flight departed for Quito, Ecuador, planned to be about eleven hours, but took over thirteen hours. “The flight was delayed due to the storm system we were going through. Pilots must perform many maneuvers to maintain the integrity of the aircraft and passengers. We arrived safely in Quito”, he said in our media.

He stated that for more than 22 hours he had no internet connection and upon arrival in Ecuador he was able to connect with his relatives as the authorities accompanied him. “Lucas Franco sent me a video where he told me that five minutes after we took off, the alarm went off warning of the attack and we took off just in time before the next wave of attacks reached Tel Aviv. This is almost a miracle.he confirmed.

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The young man said that Paraguayan ambassador José Emilio Gorostiaga and consul Anahí Armele were waiting for him in Quito, who made sure that the whole process at the airport was short, and they also transferred him to a hotel where he could rest. “They anticipated that I would have to stay a few days in Ecuador, but from the repatriation office I received a flight ticket that would take me to Paraguay that same evening,” he said.

He confirmed that when night fell he took a flight that took him to Lima, Peru, where he was received by the Paraguayan consul, Julio Centurión, who expedited the entire process at the airport. “The consul accompanied me until I boarded the plane to Paraguay. I arrived in the country on Tuesday morning, where I was received by my family and Mrs. Returning Refugees Secretary Nancy Villamayor.”, he concluded. Javier is now starting his life again in that country.