Thursday 25th April 2024
With the nationwide lockdown in Nepal due to COVID-19 outbreak, thousands of foreign citizens, mainly from the USA, Australia, France and New Zealand, have been stranded in various places of the Himalayan country.
However, the concerned countries have responded promptly by exploring various flight options to airlift their citizens.
According to the Nepal Department of immigration, a total to 302 Americans repatriated from Nepal by a Qatar Airways flight arranged by the US Government on March 31, 2020.
The US Embassy in Nepal estimated that around 3,500 Americans are still in Nepal. However, they are not ready to leave Nepal.
Earlier, the Nepali Government has issued permission to operate chartered flights for repatriation on the request of the Embassies of Germany, the US, France and Australia.
So far, over 1,200 foreign citizens have been airlifted to their respective countries using four chartered flights.
One chartered flight on March 27, 2020 and two flights on March 28, 2020 airlifted 304 tourists each.
Moreover, the Australian Embassy in Kathmandu is operating another chartered flight on April 1, 2020 to retrieve its citizens from Nepal.
The Chinese Government is sending an Air China’s airbus to evacuate its citizens in Nepal on April 1, 2020.
Likewise, British Embassy in Kathmandu has announced an unprecedented programme of charter flights to repatriate its nationals.
Meanwhile, other countries including Germany and France have also decided to airlift their citizens from Nepal.
So far, Nepal has reported only five coronavirus infection cases. However, the government has imposed complete lockdown, suspended international flights and closed borders to stem the spread of coronavirus.
As of today, the coronavirus has infected 859,338 people while claiming 42,334 lives across the world.
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