A private security group helps people evacuate the Middle East
A global security company, Global Guardian, has evacuated more than 4,000 people from the Middle East since the US and Israel attacked Iran last weekend. FOX looks at how Global Guardian is carrying out evacuations from the Middle East.
MCLEAN, Va. – As Americans are stranded in the Middle East amid the US and Israel’s war with Iran, government and private agencies are working around the clock to conduct evacuations.
In addition to the U.S. State Department’s 24/7 task force focused on evacuating Americans, private security firm Global Guardian is also working around the clock to complete the same mission.
Global Guardian has evacuated more than 4,000 people from the Middle East since Friday, according to CEO and President Dale Robert Buckner.
While its operations and logistics teams sit in an office building in northern Virginia, the company has staff in more than 140 countries, giving Global Guardian access to nearly every corner of the world for emergency response or evacuations.
Global Guardian receives calls for evacuations in the Middle East.
“We provide medical evacuation services, we provide payment for kidnapping, ransom and extortion if someone is kidnapped or extorted,” Buckner said. “We operate approximately 300 missions per month for executive travel, in approximately 84 countries per month.”
The private security company also carries out camera surveillance of homes and business premises and has cyber analysts monitor mobile devices.
After the US and Israel attacked Iran in a joint attack last weekend, the company has coordinated several emergency evacuations – but this isn’t the first time it has helped Americans out of a crisis zone.
“That means taking people out of Puerto Vallarta a week ago, and out of Jalisco, Mexico. That means taking people out of Asheville, North Carolina when it was wiped out by a hurricane,” Buckner said.
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Logistically, getting tourists out of a war zone and back to safety is a process, but the company works quickly, completing their first border crossing within the first six hours of the rocket attacks.
“Within about four and a half hours of the phone call, we had our crews moving to pick up these people and they were two middle-aged women,” O’Brien said.
Security company Global Guardian is working around the clock to conduct emergency evacuations in the Middle East.
“Put them in the car, we were then able to cross the border into Oman and by eight o’clock we were at the border. We drove through border control to a hotel in Muscat where we could stop and give them a short rest while we arranged their transport home,” he says.
The group said it remains active year-round to ensure evacuation plans are in place before disasters strike.
“There’s a story about, here’s the pick-up point, here’s the main crossing,” Buckner said. “This is what you need legally, from a paperwork perspective. And then we’ll put you in a hotel or straight onto a commercial flight. Most likely we will put you on a private charter at this point in the war.”
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Buckner said most of these missions in the region are ground movements conducted by locals. He says ground teams are active all year round in the 140 countries where the company operates. Train consistently all year round.
“We communicate, we coordinate, we execute. Protection officers, armed officers, armed vehicles, support at large-scale events with medical and security personnel,” he said, describing the company’s standard operational capabilities.
“We coordinate if the company needs drivers. From Dubai to Oman, Israel to Oman, Jordan or Egypt. From Bahrain to Saudi Arabia,” Buckner said.
While the company is working with the State Department, it said it has not yet conducted a flight mission on behalf of the ministry.
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Global Guardian offers these services through what it calls a “Duty of Care Membership,” which Buckner says costs $15,000 per year for a family of five.
“You’re going to sign a contract – whether it’s a family, a family office or typically a large corporate logo. Then we’ll have your back,” Buckner said, describing the emergency services included in the agreement.
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For Americans currently stuck in the Middle East, Buckner said the cost of evacuation using ground and air resources varies depending on the situation and location.
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