Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says the government is sending more flights to countries around the world to repatriate Canadians who have been unable to make it home as the COVID-19 virus continues to spread.
Speaking on the CBC radio program “The Current” today, Champagne said he had negotiated with Peru well into the early hours to allow three Air Canada flights to enter Peru’s closed air space to pick up stranded Canadians.
Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne says there is no letup in efforts to repatriate Canadians (Adrian Wyld/ Canadian Press)
Later Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said additional flights would bring Canadians home from Morocco, Spain, El Salvador and Guatemala.
Calling it “probably the largest repatriation effort in Canada’s history in peacetime,” Champagne said his department had received close to 10,000 calls and 14,000 emails in the previous 48 hours.
He said repatriation efforts are complicated because countries around the world are closing their borders and shutting down their airspace.
WestJet is flying empty planes to some of its regular destinations in an attempt to get Canadians home. (Daniel Slim/AFP/Getty Images)
“This scale and the complexity that we’re facing has never been seen before,” Champagne said.
“This is a book yet to be written because no one has ever seen anything like that, where you have all these things and at the same time, and you’re trying to bring people back to Canada.”
It is unclear how many Canadians are outside the country and struggling to find a way back, though Global Affairs Canada said Friday more than 430,000 people–including 4,300 in Peru–have registered with embassies abroad to let them know their whereabouts.
On Saturday, Trudeau said the government was ramping up its efforts to work with airlines to get people home and to make sure travellers were offered a reasonable commercial price for the ticket home.
The flights would prioritize stranded travellers who are Canadian citizens, Canadian permanent residents, or immediate family members of Canadian citizens.
In addition, only travellers who are asymptomatic will be allowed to board, and all travellers will be asked to self-isolate for 14 days upon entry.
Trudeau conceded on Saturday that the government won’t be able to help everyone.
“It is an extremely difficult situation, but the lockdowns in various countries, the limits on travel, the logistical capacities of our airlines means that we are unlikely to be able to bring everyone home,” he said.
CBC News reports it has heard from dozens of Canadian travellers in Ecuador, Panama, Morocco, Italy, Peru, Russia, Algeria and the Philippines, or stuck on a cruise ship that is unable to find a port to dock.
Early Sunday morning, an Air Canada flight arranged by the federal government landed in Montreal carrying 444 passengers, who said many Canadians remain in Morocco trying to get home.
“People without coronavirus will get sick from stress,” passenger Jeanne Charbonneau told the CBC’s Colin Harris.
Charbonneau told Harris she saw elderly people sleeping on the floor of the airport and people rationing medication.
With files from CBC (Colin Harris), The Canadian Press, The Associated Press
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