Fifth phase of repatriation flight that began Monday cancelled until further notice

CCMC took the decision saying adequate arrangement of quarantine facility was yet to be made

KATHMANDU, Aug 17: The government has put off its plan to resume the fifth phase of repatriation flights scheduled to start from Monday amid growing number of COVID-19 cases in the country.

The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation decided to suspend all chartered flights until further notice as per the request of Covid-19 Crisis Management Center (CCMC).

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Earlier, the CCMC had decided to make it mandatory for all those returning home in the chartered flights to stay in hotel quarantine for a week before going to their own home. The CCMC letter on Monday said that they had to take the decision as adequate arrangement of the quarantine facility was yet to be made.

The CCMC has asked MoCTCA to permit chartered flights to bring back stranded Nepali only after ensuring availability of hotel quarantine and cancel all the scheduled charter flights unless such quarantine facility is made available here.

Various embassies in labor destination countries have started issuing notice about the cancellation of scheduled chartered flights following the CCMC’s decision. The CCMC had separately written to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) on Monday to ask Nepali embassies concerned to cancel the chartered flights until further notice.

More than 40 flights were scheduled to be operated during the fifth phase of the repatriation period that was originally set to continue till August 31. 

The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) had allowed Nepal-based international airlines to operate more than 30 repatriation flights during the phase. Some 10 flights will be conducted by international airlines. More than 50,000 Nepalis have been repatriated from abroad since the government started operating repatriation flights on June 10.