Myanmar is planning to evacuate its citizens in Singapore, which tightened restrictions to control the spread of COVID-19 virus, using a relief flight, announced its embassy in Singapore on April 25.
The announcement said the embassy is in negotiation with the respective ministries to evacuate Myanmar citizens, who are in difficulty to stay in Singapore due to COVID-19 control orders in Singapore. The government will pay the expense of flight from Myanmar to Singapore and the passengers need to pay the expense of flight from Singapore to Myanmar.
Myanmar National Airlines (MNA) is planning to fly the relief flight in May based on the number of passengers listed. The exact date will be announced after the negotiations made with Ministry of Transportation and Communications. Myanmar citizens, who want to return to Myanmar, need to contact the email address of Myanmar embassy to describe their names, passport numbers, the reason to return to Myanmar and contact number in both Myanmar and English languages on April 28 the latest. They also need to contact Myanmar embassy to confirm whether they are in the list to return Myanmar or not on April 28 the latest. People, who send their personal details to the embassy, can only board the relief flight and they need to contact the MNA directly to buy flight ticket, it said.
It also warned they need to be stay 21-day community based facility quarantine and seven-day home quarantine set by Ministry of Health and Sports after they arrived in Yangon International Airport.
“Myanmar embassy is arranging a relief flight to evacuate us and we want them to evacuate all Myanmar citizens who are in trouble. It is because there are many people, who faced lay-offs, as their companies stopped their operations. Some have shortage of money and some are in need of accommodation. We urged the government to evacuate us as soon as possible. We will follow the rules and regulations set by the Ministry of Health and Sports,” said workers who faced difficulties in Singapore to the Daily Eleven.
Myanmar citizens in Singapore sent a letter to the embassy on April 20 to help them to return to Myanmar. Pregnant women, elderly people and students are facing difficulties such as unemployment, accommodation and healthcare in Singapore and they asked the embassy to issue approval letter to return to Myanmar and to inform respective departments.
Myanmar citizens arrived in Singapore with various reasons, including people who came to Singapore to have medical treatment and students, are in need of help. Among them, pregnant woman are included, according to Myanmar citizens.
Myanmar government imposed more restrictions as the number of COVID-19 patients in the country is increased over 140. The authorities banned the operation of international flights from March 30 to April 13 initially and it now extended to April 30 due to the outbreak of COVID-19 virus. Moreover some airlines announced their flights will be postponed till mid-May.
Myanmar citizens in foreign countries are faced difficulties to return to Myanmar as the government extended the ban on international flights.
