MORE than 400 Europeans have since been repatriated from Fiji to Europe due to COVID-19 pandemic.
This after 88 European and British citizens were repatriated from Fiji on a United Kingdom chartered, Fiji Airways operated flight yesterday April 29, 2020.
In a statement yesterday the Delegation of the European Union for the Pacific said the Fiji Airways plane flew out of the Nadi International Airport at 11:25am Thursday bound for Melbourne, Australia with onwards connections to fly back to Europe.
“Following the first cases of COVID-19 in Fiji on 19 March 2020, the Nadi International Airport was closed and all regular flights were suspended to contain the outbreak of the pandemic,” the statement said.
It further stated that this presented a very challenging environment to take home nearly 1000 Europeans who were stranded across 13 Pacific island countries, most of them in Fiji.
The Ambassador of the European Union for the Pacific and to Fiji, Sujiro Seam, together with the British High Commissioner, Melanie Hopkins, farewelled the European and British passengers in the cabin just before take-off, saying: ”I am so happy that so many of you made it on this last chartered repatriation flight for Europeans from the Pacific. This concludes more than a month of efforts and coordination with local governments, airline companies and European Diplomatic Missions, to bring Europeans from Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu back home.”
The Delegation of the European Union will now shift its focus to the Solomon Islands and Palau, where Europeans are still looking for ways to fly back home.
