The Federal Government will tomorrow begin to evacuate at least
4,000 Nigerians outside the country.
This is even as it said it was still striving to secure enough
spaces to accommodate that number for the mandatory 14-day
quarantine.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, made this
disclosure at the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on
Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
According to Onyeama, evacuation flights for Nigerians will
commence with an Emirates flight from Dubai to Lagos tomorrow and
would be followed by a BA flight on Friday, from London to Lagos,
and Ethiopian Airlines from the United States, adding that the
evacuees will be mandatorily quarantined in hotels and monitored
for 14 days.
According to him, the biggest challenge in bringing Nigerians
back was where to quarantine them on arrival.
While noting that there was a large number of Nigerians in China
who needed to come back, Onyeama said: “We want to do it as quickly
as possible, but it hasn’t been easy. Within two weeks, we hope we
can do that.”
The Federal Government had said interested persons would be
responsible for the cost of logistics to return to the country. The
Ministry of Foreign Affairs had also stated that the financial
implications would be borne by the prospective evacuees, who would
be compulsorily quarantined when they returned.
Onyeama said the change in date for evacuation of Nigerians from
different parts of the world originally scheduled to commence
Monday May 4 was caused by the constraints in resources.
The Nigerians waiting to be evacuated are mainly in China, which
has become controversial as reports have alleged that some
Nigerians were being maltreated in the city of Guangzhou, Guangdong
Province. Other countries include the United States, United
Kingdom, South Africa, and India, among others.
Onyeama said: “By God’s grace, on Wednesday, we would start the
process of repatriating our nationals from outside the country.
There are about almost 4,000 Nigerians wishing to come back home.
If we had our way, we would bring them all back immediately and all
at once, but there are various constraints and the biggest
constraints is where to quarantine them, the beds.
“We have done everything we can to get beds here in Abuja and in
Lagos. In Lagos, we have almost 300 beds available, and I would
like to take some time out to again express our gratitude to the
governor of Lagos State because, without his personal engagement,
it would have been more difficult for us. So, the first flight
(Emirates) on Wednesday will be to Lagos.”
The minister added that the country was also making arrangements
for a British Airways flight coming to Nigeria on Friday to
evacuate some British nationals in Nigeria, since the plane would
be coming empty, Nigeri had negotiated with the British government
to bring Nigerians from the United Kingdom (UK) on Friday. He,
however, regretted that the plane would not be coming to Abuja,
where the government has made available over 1,000 hotel rooms for
the evacuees.
“So, we are hoping that, on Friday, we will be able to evacuate
from the UK anything up to 300 Nigerians from the UK. Ideally, we
would have liked that flight to be coming to Abuja because we have
been able to secure more hotel rooms (almost 1,000) in Abuja than
we have in Lagos but, unfortunately, that plane cannot come to
Abuja but only Lagos.
“So, it is going to put quite a strain on our capacity in Lagos
because, in addition to just getting the rooms, the Port Health
Authority, the NCDC will have to monitor every one of the evacuees
on regular basis and, of course, the security elements have to be
in place and all their other support services have to be in place
and they are not all available for the evacuees because the numbers
are going up in the country and resources, human and material, are
the real challenges that we are facing,” Onyeama said.
For Nigerians in the US, the minister noted that the Nigerian
missions in New York, Washington and Atlanta were trying to strike
a deal with the US authorities for any flight available to bring
back Nigerians. He added that government was making arrangements
with an Ethiopian Airlines flight that does regular commercial
operations in the US to bring back Nigerians on Monday next
week.
He added that Nigeria’s Air Peace plane chartered for a medical
evacuation of a Nigerian couple to take a family member to London
would also be engaged to evacuate Nigerians, since the plane will
be coming back from London empty: “So we are hoping to strike a
deal with Air peace on Saturday to bring our people.”
On Nigerians who in China, Onyeama said, “China is a huge crisis
and we are trying to see if we can get a plane quickly to go and
evacuate our people who are in large numbers in China, who also
have additional challenges. We are trying to source funds to also
support these compatriots of ours, but there are capacity
issues.
“It has not been easy sourcing a plane but we are making
arrangements with one of the carriers and we are hoping that,
within two weeks, we will be able to move to China and bring back
our people and those who are in South Africa, India in France,” he
said.
The Federal Government will tomorrow begin to evacuate at least
4,000 Nigerians outside the country.
This is even as it said it was still striving to secure enough
spaces to accommodate that number for the mandatory 14-day
quarantine.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, made this
disclosure at the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on
Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
According to Onyeama, evacuation flights for Nigerians will
commence with an Emirates flight from Dubai to Lagos tomorrow and
would be followed by a BA flight on Friday, from London to Lagos,
and Ethiopian Airlines from the United States, adding that the
evacuees will be mandatorily quarantined in hotels and monitored
for 14 days.
According to him, the biggest challenge in bringing Nigerians
back was where to quarantine them on arrival.
While noting that there was a large number of Nigerians in China
who needed to come back, Onyeama said: “We want to do it as quickly
as possible, but it hasn’t been easy. Within two weeks, we hope we
can do that.”
The Federal Government had said interested persons would be
responsible for the cost of logistics to return to the country. The
Ministry of Foreign Affairs had also stated that the financial
implications would be borne by the prospective evacuees, who would
be compulsorily quarantined when they returned.
Onyeama said the change in date for evacuation of Nigerians from
different parts of the world originally scheduled to commence
Monday May 4 was caused by the constraints in resources.
The Nigerians waiting to be evacuated are mainly in China, which
has become controversial as reports have alleged that some
Nigerians were being maltreated in the city of Guangzhou, Guangdong
Province. Other countries include the United States, United
Kingdom, South Africa, and India, among others.
Onyeama said: “By God’s grace, on Wednesday, we would start the
process of repatriating our nationals from outside the country.
There are about almost 4,000 Nigerians wishing to come back home.
If we had our way, we would bring them all back immediately and all
at once, but there are various constraints and the biggest
constraints is where to quarantine them, the beds.
“We have done everything we can to get beds here in Abuja and in
Lagos. In Lagos, we have almost 300 beds available, and I would
like to take some time out to again express our gratitude to the
governor of Lagos State because, without his personal engagement,
it would have been more difficult for us. So, the first flight
(Emirates) on Wednesday will be to Lagos.”
The minister added that the country was also making arrangements
for a British Airways flight coming to Nigeria on Friday to
evacuate some British nationals in Nigeria, since the plane would
be coming empty, Nigeri had negotiated with the British government
to bring Nigerians from the United Kingdom (UK) on Friday. He,
however, regretted that the plane would not be coming to Abuja,
where the government has made available over 1,000 hotel rooms for
the evacuees.
“So, we are hoping that, on Friday, we will be able to evacuate
from the UK anything up to 300 Nigerians from the UK. Ideally, we
would have liked that flight to be coming to Abuja because we have
been able to secure more hotel rooms (almost 1,000) in Abuja than
we have in Lagos but, unfortunately, that plane cannot come to
Abuja but only Lagos.
“So, it is going to put quite a strain on our capacity in Lagos
because, in addition to just getting the rooms, the Port Health
Authority, the NCDC will have to monitor every one of the evacuees
on regular basis and, of course, the security elements have to be
in place and all their other support services have to be in place
and they are not all available for the evacuees because the numbers
are going up in the country and resources, human and material, are
the real challenges that we are facing,” Onyeama said.
For Nigerians in the US, the minister noted that the Nigerian
missions in New York, Washington and Atlanta were trying to strike
a deal with the US authorities for any flight available to bring
back Nigerians. He added that government was making arrangements
with an Ethiopian Airlines flight that does regular commercial
operations in the US to bring back Nigerians on Monday next
week.
He added that Nigeria’s Air Peace plane chartered for a medical
evacuation of a Nigerian couple to take a family member to London
would also be engaged to evacuate Nigerians, since the plane will
be coming back from London empty: “So we are hoping to strike a
deal with Air peace on Saturday to bring our people.”
On Nigerians who in China, Onyeama said, “China is a huge crisis
and we are trying to see if we can get a plane quickly to go and
evacuate our people who are in large numbers in China, who also
have additional challenges. We are trying to source funds to also
support these compatriots of ours, but there are capacity
issues.
“It has not been easy sourcing a plane but we are making
arrangements with one of the carriers and we are hoping that,
within two weeks, we will be able to move to China and bring back
our people and those who are in South Africa, India in France,” he
said.