EU Brought Home Over Half a Million Citizens Stranded Abroad Amid COVID-19
France’s Minister of Interior Christophe Castaner believes Italy should not have taken a decision to reopen its borders in June without first coordinating with some of the EU member states, calling Italy’s decision as a non-uniform response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Over half a million EU citizens have come back home since March 17, when the European Union established a Consular Coordination Task Force to coordinate the repatriation of its citizens stranded worldwide due to border closures, travel bans and other restrictions amid the Coronavirus outbreak.
The President of the EU Council Charles Michel has applauded the Task Force and its members for the professional work through which they’ve managed to bring home over 580,000 EU nationals,
“Today, I want to congratulate the Task Force and its members for an extremely efficient and professional undertaking. Your clear vision of the mission to be accomplished, meticulous planning and tireless round-the-clock efforts under exceptional working circumstances enabled more than 580,000 EU citizens to safely return to their homes in Europe,” the President of the European Council said according to a press release issued by the Council.
President Michel also highlighted that the Task Force faced an unprecedented challenge of reaching out to over 625,000 citizens of the EU who were at the time stuck in countries abroad.
He also pointed out that the circumstance in which the Task Force worked were very difficult in particular due to travel restrictions and the scarcity of air and land transport amid the global public health crisis caused by the Coronavirus pandemic.
“Let me express my gratitude to all involved in this unprecedented consular cooperation, accomplished thanks to the excellent interinstitutional work conducted by the EEAS, Commission services, the Presidency of the Council and all Member States, including embassies and consulates and the 143 EU Delegations worldwide,” President Michel said.
Half a month ago, the German authorities announced they had carried out the largest repatriation process in its history amid the Coronavirus crisis, bringing home its citizens stranded abroad, and helping other countries get back their citizens.
According to statistics, Germany has brought back over 240,000 passengers on flights of tour operations, commercial flights and flights chartered by the Federal Government.
