Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Indonesian Embassy in Cairo has facilitated 75 Indonesians stranded in Egypt to return to Indonesia, amid the local government's policy to close all international flights since March 19 to contain the COVID-19 transmission.
A charter flight of Air Cairo carrying the Indonesian citizens departed from Cairo on Saturday (April 25) at 2:45 p.m. local time and arrived at Jakarta airport on Sunday at 10:35 a.m. local time.
The repatriation was initiated by the government of Egypt which had planned to evacuate its 80 citizens stranded in Jakarta and Bali due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The Egypt Foreign Ministry has offered to transport Indonesians from Egypt using a chartered airplane that will evacuate Egyptians from Indonesia. We have made communication since March 2020 and finally it (the repatriation) can be materialized on April 25," Indonesian Ambassador to Egypt Helmy Fauzy said in a statement here on Sunday.
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Air Cairo, a low-cost carrier and subsidiary of EgyptAir, charged US$700 per person for the repatriation. The air fare will be paid by passengers.
"At first, the Indonesian Embassy in Cairo has received 100 applications for the repatriation. But after the embassy informed that the repatriation would be prioritized for those urgently needing to return home, the number has reduced to 75 persons," he said.
Some of the stranded Indonesian citizens are participants of Arabic course, students who have finished their study, lecturer of Bahasa Indonesia, Indonesian tourists involved in accidents and were treated in Egypt, and migrant workers.
The Indonesian Embassy has coordinated with the central and local governments to help the Indonesians to return to their home towns in East Java, Central Java, West Java, Jakarta, Bali, Aceh, and West Sumatra.
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