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Kathmandu, April 4
Around 800 more tourists were evacuated today to their respective countries in collaboration with Nepal Tourism Board.
According to NTB, a total of four repatriation flights left for France, Germany, the Czech Republic and Malaysia.
Two aircraft of Qatar Airways evacuated a total of 610 European tourists from Nepal.
&One aircraft carrying 307 European nationals departed for Frankfurt while another aircraft left for Paris carrying 303 passengers,& informed NTB official Lila Baniya.
Meanwhile, 102 nationals of the Czech Republic were evacuated to Prague via a Malaysia Airlines flight, he added.
According to Veronica Cody, ambassador of the European Union to Nepal, a total of 1,070 Europeans have been evacuated so far from Nepal.
&Until now there have been four repatriation flights organised by France, Germany and the Netherlands.
So, until today, 1,070 Europeans have been repatriated,& she said.
&Today, three more flights were organised by the Czech Republic, France and Germany, allowing around 700 people to leave for Europe,& Cody informed.
She also took the opportunity to thank the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal and NTB for making the repatriation possible.
Amid this, British nationals, who have been stranded in Nepal, have been requesting the EU on social media to evacuate them as the British government is taking a rather long time with the process.
&Can you come get the rest of the British citizens?& Kerry Louise, a British national, wrote on the French ambassador Twitter handle.
&As another flight to Germany leavestoday and to America tomorrow, our spirits are low and we frankly feel trapped here by our own government,& she wrote on Twitter.
Posting a video on Twitter, Anna Morrison, another British citizen, said that she had been stuck in Kathmandu for the last 12 days with limited food and medicines.
&The British, who are stranded in Nepal, are tired of seeing citizens of other countries go home, but not us,& she said, adding, &Other nationals are being repatriated frequently and we can&t even get in touch with our embassy and if we do, they say that they are trying to arrange flights.&
According to her, around 700 British nationals are stuck in Kathmandu and most of them are running out of money which has been worrying them.
However, British Ambassador Nicola Pollitt has said that the embassy is trying to arrange affordable chartered flights for British tourists and that will be probably arranged by the end of next week.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian Embassy in Nepal also evacuated around 50 Malaysian tourists today.
&An aircraft of Malindo Air departed to Kuala Lumpur today carrying 50 Malaysians and 22 other foreign nationals,& Baniya said.
According to him, another flight arranged by the United States has been scheduled for tomorrow, while Korean Air has postponed its repatriation flight to April 10.
The Canadian Consulate in Kathmandu has also called on its citizens and permanent residency card holders in Nepal to contact the consulate as it has identified a local travel agency to manage the logistics and a flight will be conducted next week.
A large number of tourists stranded in Nepal after the lockdown are being repatriated by their respective countries.
A version of this article appears in e-paper on April 05, 2020 of The Himalayan Times. The post Around 800 tourists evacuated on four flights from Kathmandu appeared first on The Himalayan Times.
