As the Middle East teeters on the edge of a total conflagration following the US-Israeli strikes on Tehran and the subsequent retaliatory volleys from Iran’s Interim Leadership Council, the true cost of state protection is being revealed in the most literal sense. Thousands of Irish and British citizens find themselves stranded in the Gulf, caught in the crossfire of an imperial escalation they did not choose. In response, the Irish government has chartered repatriation flights from Oman to Dublin, but the safety of its citizens comes with a steep invoice: €800 per seat. Foreign Affairs Minister Helen McEntee defended the charge as ‘substantially reduced,’ yet the disparity with the UK’s £350 fee has sparked a firestorm of criticism. Sinn Féin’s Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire rightly noted that the ‘last thing we want to see is people not being able to access a repatriation flight because they are worried they can't afford it.’ This is the commodification of rescue. In a moment of acute geopolitical crisis, the state is functioning not as a guarantor of collective security, but as a travel agent of last resort, passing the costs of international instability onto the working-class families it claims to represent. While children are permitted to travel for free and the elderly are prioritised, the underlying message is clear: if you are a worker caught in a war zone, your right to return is contingent on your liquidity. This fee is a tax on survival. It highlights a recurring theme in the neoliberal era—the socialisation of risk for the powerful and the individualisation of cost for the many. When the state facilitates the sale of arms or participates in the diplomatic alignments that lead to such escalations, it does so with public resources. Yet, when those same policies result in a humanitarian scramble, the bill is sent to the victims. The Aspirant stands in solidarity with those stranded and calls for the immediate abolition of repatriation fees. Safety should be a right, not a luxury good accessible only to those with a healthy bank balance.