Mozambique: Portuguese citizens stranded after flight cancellation

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Mozambique: Portuguese citizens stranded after flight cancellation

9:37 CAT | 19 Mar 2020

File photo: Lusa

A group of at least 25 Portuguese citizens, in addition to passengers of other nationalities, have been stranded in Mozambique since Wednesday, after the cancellation of a flight to Portugal and have no immediate solutions in sight, they told Lusa.

A flight from Linhas Áreas de Angola (TAAG) from Maputo to Porto, with a stopover in Luanda, was cancelled due to the coronavirus without the company offering any alternatives to Portugal, José Fonseca, one of the passengers said.

Lusa heard reports that neither the company nor travel insurance is assuming the costs of extending their stay in Maputo, alleging the exceptional nature of the pandemic caused by the coronavirus.

The only company still making the connection between Lisbon and Maputo is the Portuguese flag-carrier TAP, but it is difficult to find a seat and any there are, cost prohibitive prices José Fonseca said, as he would need five tickets, for him, his wife and three children.

The group continues to contact airlines in search of solutions but appealed to the Portuguese authorities.

It is not only a question of the damage that is accumulating for the family, but also of the fear of the threat of the pandemic hitting the country.

All in all, being stranded in Maputo is a question of health, security, stress, but it is also financial one.

Hugo Silvestre is with his extended family on an occasional visit to Mozambique which threatens to become a problem.

“We have [financial] reserves for a few days with quality, but if the solution does not come up for two to three weeks, we are going to have some difficult time and that worries us,” he said.

“What we are asking the Portuguese state to do is to treat us in the same way that they treated citizens who were in China and Morocco, to come and get us,” he said.

Frederico Silva, Consul General of Portugal in Maputo, told Lusa that in addition to the passengers who should follow on Wednesday’s TAAG flight, there are others already flagged in a total of nine countries under his jurisdiction.

A total is still an undetermined number of people who are mostly displaced in tourism or business and who considering the new contexts have difficulty returning to the country.

He said, as much as possible was being done to find solutions on a case-by-case basis, acknowledging that it is a colossal task.

There are still undetermined needs, but the objective is that everyone can return to Portugal as soon as possible, he said.

The coronavirus, responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic, has infected more than 220,000 people worldwide, of whom more than 9,000 have died.

Of those infected, more than 85,500 recovered from the disease.

The outbreak began in China in December and has now spread to 176 countries and territories, leading the World Health Organisation to declare a pandemic situation.

In Portugal, the Directorate-General of Health (DGS) raised on Thursday the number of confirmed cases of infection to 785, 143 more than on Wednesday. The number of deaths in the country has risen to three.

Source: Lusa