Tarom plane brings back citizens stranded in South Africa

Romanian flag carrier Tarom brought back 46 Romanian and 18 EU citizens to Bucharest from Johannesburg on Tuesday afternoon. The country is also preparing to repatriate tourists blocked in Morocco.

The Romanian authorities sent a plane to South Africa to repatriate tens of Romanians that could not leave the country after their flights were cancelled, following the discovery of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Among those brought back were members of rugby champions CSM Baia Mare, who participated in an international tournament in Bloemfontein.

The plane also carried 18 citizens of other EU member states and a few third-country nationals, who are part of the rugby team’s staff and residents of Romania.

However, according to the Foreign Ministry, other Romanian citizens could not make it to the plane. They would remain in contact with the consular staff, who are seeking additional solutions to repatriate them.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said another plane would leave on Thursday (2 December) to Morocco to take over 72 Romanian tourists who could not return after the Rabat government grounded commercial flights for two weeks.

The prime minister said authorities approved another flight to repatriate citizens but decided to wait two more days to identify if others are in a similar situation and, through the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism, to potentially transport citizens of other member states.

(Bogdan Neagu | EURACTIV.ro)