KATHMANDU, Mar 28 (NNN-NEPALNEWS) – Various countries have started to evacuate and repatriate their nationals on chartered flights from Nepal, after the Himalayan country imposed nationwide lock-down, suspending all domestic and international flights, including surface travels, Nepali officials said.
The government imposed week-long lock-down starting from Tuesday, to prevent the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, leaving many foreign tourists stranded, in different trekking and travel spots, including Lukla, Bardiya and Pokhara.
Nepal has so far reported four cases of infections.
“On Friday, at the initiative of German embassy in Nepal, 307 Europeans, including three children, left Nepal on a chartered flight of Qatar Airways, from Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in Kathmandu.”
The government approved chartered flights from Kathmandu to Doha, Qatar, from where they could reach their destinations, according to Suresh Acharya, joint secretary of Nepal’s Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation.
“Under the initiative of the German embassy, another Qatar Airways chartered plane is scheduled to expatriate Europeans on Saturday (today).” Acharya said, the French embassy has also got permission to expatriate Europeans.
According to Acharya, other countries, including South Korea, Australia, Britain and the United States, have also requested to evacuate their nationals from Nepal.
As per a letter sent by Nepal’s Foreign Ministry to the Home Ministry and Tourism Ministry, embassies of Malaysia, Germany, Australia, Switzerland, Russia, Britain, South Africa have sought permission to evacuate their and other countries’ nationals.
But, the government authorities said that, they have no exact data of how many foreigners have been stranded in Nepal.
Dhananjaya Regmi, chief executive officer of Nepal Tourism Board, main tourism promotion body of the Himalayan country, said that, the board had so far rescued 227 foreigners in the past couple of days.
Sarita Lama, general secretary at Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal, a grouping of trekking agencies, said, travel trade entrepreneurs created a new online platform ‘strandedinnepal.com’ where foreign tourists have been asked to notify about them, to remain in touch with the tourism entrepreneurs and the embassies of concerned countries.– NNN-NEPALNEWS