In the last hours, the 26,000 Spaniards assisted have been reached after, just yesterday, half a thousand passengers had managed to reach Spain thanks to the assistance of our Embassies and Consulates.
The operation in Morocco is particularly relevant, for which a huge deployment was carried out by our Consulates, which transported the 180 passengers who flew to Spain by bus to Casablanca. And Bolivia, a flight expected by many of the 292 passengers who managed to board and sadly traveled the ashes of compatriots who died in a plane crash when, precisely, they were going to take that flight.
The EU Emergency Coordination Center has expressly stated that "we are no longer in crisis mode" and that, from now on, the European Civil Protection Mechanism (European mechanism with which most of these flights have been made ) will be much more restrictive when co-financing repatriation flights. In fact, most partner countries have dramatically reduced, or completely suspended, their flights.
However, Spain still has four flights planned for the next few days, which are Chile (May 10), Costa Rica (May 12), The Gambia (May 12) and Cuba (May 16). After these operations, Spain will have carried out a total of 49 repatriation flights through which all the people surprised by the severe restrictions derived from the COVID-19 and who had no other possibility to return to Spain have been allowed to return.
From the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation as well as in the network of Embassies and Consulates, new requests have been registered from Spanish citizens who now want to return. Attempts are being made to deal with these situations, paying special attention to those cases that present greater vulnerability.
In fact, several ambassadors have taken the initiative to send a letter to all those Spaniards who have now requested to return to Spain. In these letters there is a common denominator that can be summarized in the understanding of the situation they are going through, patience for the difficulties that we are all encountering in all countries for mobility and responsibility to accommodate the possibilities that arise. which, in many cases, are the only ones that exist.
However, the Embassies and Consulates maintain permanent and constant contact with Spanish citizens who are informed through the usual channels and, at the same time, the ALOJA platform remains active, which this week already had 615 applicants for accommodation and 491 offers by Spaniards residing abroad and offering their home to welcome those who cannot find accommodation while waiting to be returned.
