Canadians trapped in Morocco by COVID-19 restrictions to be evacuated this weekend: Trudeau
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said today that a flight has been arranged to bring home Canadians stranded in Morocco, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the transport sector.
«We’re in discussion with Canadian airlines to help Canadians stranded abroad come home,» Trudeau said this morning from outside Rideau Cottage in Ottawa, where he remains in self-isolation. «We will have more details to share but the first flight will be picking up Canadians from Morocco this weekend,»
Air Canada is sending a plane Saturday that will ferry Canadians home from the North African nation to Montreal. Passengers will have to pay for this flight as it’s a commercial flight — not a rescue flight chartered by the Canadian government.
Travellers can apply for up to $5,000 in financial support from the Canadian government to help with COVID-19-related travel disruptions. The loan must be repaid.
Crucial details about the flight — like when it would board and from which airport it would be departing — were not immediately available.
A spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Global Affairs Canada has heard from tens of thousands of Canadians looking to get home after the federal government announced a week ago that all travellers abroad should return to Canada and self-isolate for 14 days.
The minister’s office said the government is particularly concerned about travellers in Morocco and Peru, two destinations where a large number of Canadians are stranded. Peru is under martial law and has closed its borders to everyone looking to get in or out. CBC News has heard from dozens of Canadians stuck there who have no way to get home.
Canadians now outside Canada and needing help to return home can contact the nearest Government of Canada office or Global Affairs Canada’s 24/7 Emergency Watch and Response Centre in Ottawa at +1 613-996-8885 (collect calls are accepted where available), or they can email [email protected].
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said stranded travellers should register with the government’s Canadians Abroad program so Global Affairs knows just how many people are overseas and how to reach them if more flights become available.
«We are working urgently to find a way to help those people come home,» Freeland told reporters Friday. «It’s a very complex situation. We understand how frightening it is for people. And we’re working to get through it.»
Sunwing, a leisure airline that typically serves holiday destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean, has repatriated thousands of Canadians stuck overseas and has even brought back non-Sunwing passengers for free.
«We understand a lot of Canadians are still stranded outside the country and struggling to get home,» said Stephen Hunter, CEO of Sunwing Travel Group.
«That’s why we want to open up any extra capacity we have. It’s the Canadian thing to do.»
Sunwing says it expects to have all of its customers back in Canada by March 23, at which time all of its flights will be temporarily suspended.
