372 repatriation flights conducted so far during pandemic

KATHMANDU: A total of 372 repatriation flights have been conducted so far to bring back Nepalese from the coronavirus-affected countries.

According to a statement issued today by the COVID-19 Crisis Management Centre (CCMC), 372 flights have been conducted from 30 countries till Friday and 58,046 citizens have been evacuated.

Among the countries from where Nepalese were evacuated, the highest has been from the United Arab Emirates with 16,376 people returning from the said destination. Meanwhile, 9,043 people were brought home from Malaysia and 8,459 from Saudi Arabia. Similarly, 6,906 Nepalese have returned from Kuwait and 7,525 from Qatar till date.

Among the people who returned home, a majority did so on their own while the remaining was evacuated by the government. Meanwhile, most of the passengers who returned from Kuwait were sent back by the Kuwaiti government on its own expenses.

Operation of international flights has been halted since March 22 to stop the spread of the coronavirus in the country. Since then, a total of 20,723 Nepalese have also departed from Nepal to different labor destinations,of which, a total of 11,226 Nepalese left for South Korea and Japan while others departed to the Gulf nations.

During the lockdown period, a total of 9,484 foreigners have been evacuated to their respective countries.

The government has allowed resumption of regular international flights from September 2. In the initial phase, the government has resumed flights from destinations that have the facility of RT-PCR test. Currently, the government has allowed only 800 passengers to enter the country in a single day.