Durban - The Embassy of the State of Qatar has confirmed that they will continue to bring home South Africans who are stranded in other parts of the world during Covid-19 lockdown.
Through six inbound and outbound flights thus far, hundreds of South Africans have returned home after being stranded in other parts of the world. Eight more flights have been scheduled for May 20, 24 and 28 May as well as 2 June. The Embassy has also provided buses to OR Tambo International Airport, once they landed at the Embassy, in Waterkloof.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Embassy said Qatar Airways Relief Charter Flights between Doha and Johannesburg, which started on May 5, will continue until June 2. This will be done in cooperation between the embassy, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa (Dirco), the relevant authorities in Qatar and Qatar Airways, in order to assist in repatriating stranded South African nationals from various cities around the world, and repatriating other foreign nationals from South Africa via Doha, to their respective countries.
The Embassy said the South African-based Qatar Airways office will provide the respective embassies with consolidated booking lists of their citizens and these lists will be sent, with formal requests to the Qatar Embassy.
All information will be ratified and formally communicated to the respective authorities in SA for final clearance.
The Embassy said the partnership demonstrated the need for solidarity and international cooperation in order to respond to Covid-19 and it represented an example of the excellent bilateral relations between the State of Qatar and the Republic of South Africa, and all friendly states.
Dirco spokesperson Lunga Ngqengelele said close to 5000 people had been repatriated in total using air, and hundreds using land borders.