Covid-19: Portuguese citizens in Mozambique demand government repatriation

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Covid-19: Portuguese citizens in Mozambique demand government repatriation

10:23 CAT | 19 Jun 2020

File photo: Macauhub

Portuguese citizens in Mozambique have called on the Portuguese government to speed up the repatriation process, as the borders of the African country are closed to commercial flights due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Carlos Amaral, one Portuguese citizen stranded in the country, said that everyone understands coronavirus, but he warned that there are people who at this moment do not have money to live because they gave up the house they had, or have children.

“We are trapped by the state of emergency because there are no flights, and you cannot go to Johannesburg or anywhere else because the borders are closed,” Amaral added.

According to the victim, there was a mobilisation of a group of affected people, who contacted the Portuguese consulate general in Maputo, but the responses were not enlightening and pointed out to the Portuguese authorities a lack of sensitivity to solve and work on the problem.

Contacted by Lusa, the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it is aware of the situation and that the embassy in Maputo and the consulates-general of Portugal in Maputo and Beira were contacted by about 220 Portuguese citizens, half of whom invoke force majeure to return to Portugal.

The government department pointed out that there was a request for TAP to resume scheduled passenger flights weekly but that this was not authorised by the Mozambican authorities in the context of the extension of the state of emergency.

The Ministry said that it recognises the difficulties that this situation entails for a wide range of national citizens and that, at a bilateral level, various steps have been taken at a consular, diplomatic and political level to find an appropriate solution as soon as possible.

Mozambique, which, by Thursday (June 18), had 662 cases of infection and four deaths from Covid-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic, declared a state of emergency on 1 April for the prevention and containment of the disease, which was to be extended at the end of May until at least 29 June.

In Africa, there are 7,197 confirmed deaths in more than 267,000 infected in 54 countries, according to the latest pandemic statistics on the continent.

Source: Lusa