Kiwis stranded in Vanuatu and on the Covid-19 stricken cruise ship off the Uruguay coast have been flown home on Government-organised repatriation flights.
A New Zealand Defence Force C-130 Hercules carrying 39 people from Vanuatu and a charted medevac flight carrying 13 New Zealanders from the cruise ship in Uruguay are the latest repatriations of New Zealanders stranded overseas due to the Covid-19 pandemic according to Foreign Minister Winston Peters.
“The deployment of the C-130 to Vanuatu carrying a helicopter and additional supplies to support the Tropical Cyclone Harold response effort gave us the opportunity to repatriate a large group of New Zealanders seeking to return home,” Mr Peters said.
“Our most recent repatriation effort occurred this afternoon with 13 people previously stranded aboard the Greg Mortimer cruise ship off the coast of Uruguay having arrived in Auckland on a Government-chartered medevac plane from Melbourne.
“These people were in a dangerous situation, with very limited options to return, and a huge amount of work went into assisting them to leave Uruguay."
“We continue to look for solutions in an extremely complex global environment, including working with our partners wherever we can, but government-chartered flights will only be explored in exceptional circumstances when all other options have been exhausted," Mr Peters said.
All passengers arriving into New Zealand will enter immediate quarantine.
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