The first of the flights will take place on April 27 with departure from Argentina and stopover in Paraguay where Spaniards who have shown their interest to the respective Embassies of Spain in participating in that flight will also board. This would be the sixth flight originating in Argentina, from where 1,346 Spaniards have already arrived. Only two days later a new flight departs from Ecuador, in this case, it is the fifth and with which the figure of the 1,000 Spaniards to whom the Spanish Embassy in Ecuador has provided assistance will be greatly exceeded.
A flight will depart from Australia on May 30, from Colombia on May 2 (the second flight that charter to Spain and that will allow the number of 233 Spaniards who were able to return in the first to increase) and from Bolivia another in early May. However, there are other flights under consideration that could increase the final number of flights chartered by Spain above the current 42.
Through this formula that is part of the European Civil Protection Mechanism, more than 7,000 Spaniards have already been able to repatriate since the restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic began. But this figure is complemented by the assistance that the network of Embassies and Consulates have provided to the Spanish who had expressed their willingness to return to Spain and that by the end of this week it will easily exceed 24,000 people.
One of the most relevant operations, especially due to its complexity, is the one that has allowed the landing of a Philippine plane with 157 Spaniards on board. But there are also others that, although less voluminous are also complex, such as the one that has allowed the return of ten Spaniards from Niger and Chad on flights from France; three Spaniards in Tanzania who managed to leave on a flight from the Netherlands; ten Spaniards who were in Tbilisi (Georgia) and will arrive in Barcelona; a bus with 29 Spaniards on board (26 Erasmus students) from Prague and another from Milan with 24 passengers that will also arrive in Barcelona; two Spaniards from Uganda; two others from Cameroon; four from the Ivory Coast and five more from Ghana, among others.
The network of Spanish Embassies and Consulates has ensured that most of the Spaniards who attended the recommendations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the European Union and Cooperation not to travel and to reschedule their trip to return home have already succeeded. However, now new cases are beginning to emerge that, for the most part, had not reported their presence in the country or their interest in returning to Spain.
Both from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the European Union and Cooperation as well as from the 215 Embassies and Consulates where 4,500 professionals are deployed, they are permanently attended to to give them an answer to their situation. In this sense, the ALOJA platform that, in just three weeks, has registered 456 Spaniards living abroad as accommodation providers for the 493 Spaniards who have been interested in this alternative for those who are unable to find a place to stay while waiting for their return to Spain.
