Nepal Lockdown: 5000 Stranded Foreigners Repatriated

Even after the enforcement of nationwide lockdown by the Nepali Government, the foreign governments have worked proactively to retrieve their stranded citizens.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, around 4,874 foreigners were airlifted to their homelands over the past few weeks.

A total of 51 chartered flights were mobilized to repatriate stranded foreigners to almost 60 countries.

Even though Nepal has suspended all international flights to the country from March 24, it has permitted the foreign nations to repatriate their stranded citizens.

Repatriated foreigners include:

• UK – 666
• USA – 535
• Germany – 656
• Canada – 322
• France – 425
• Australia – 236
• South Korea – 163
• Netherlands – 176
• Japan – 162
• Russia – 110
• Maldives – 18

Other countries including Italy, Poland, Switzerland, Austria, New Zealand, Russia, China, Bangladesh, Singapore, Mexico, Africa, Portugal, and Norway have also evacuated their citizens from Nepal.

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In contrast to this, the Nepali Government seems to overlook the situation of the Nepali migrant workers stranded across various foreign countries.

According to the Foreign Employment Board, almost 600,000 Nepalis stranded in various countries are desperately waiting to return home.

The stranded Nepalis include-

• Those who have lost employment due to COVID-19
• Those who completed visa expiry
• Those who went to foreign countries for tourism

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Minister Pradeep Gyawali informed that around 210, 871 stranded Nepalis would be repatriated immediately while over 377,000 will be evacuated later.

According to the Ministry, over 250,000 Nepalis are stranded in India alone.