Combating coronavirus: UAE, Pakistan working on increasing repatriation flights

Dubai - The government has already flown out many Pakistanis stranded in UAE.

The UAE has coordinated with Islamabad to allocate additional flights to repatriate Pakistanis stranded in the UAE.
Around a dozen repatriation flights will depart the UAE between April 20 and April 28 and they they will be operated by Emirates, Air Arabia and PIA, sources said.
As many as six flights of the UAE carriers have been allocated which includes five by Dubai-based Emirates and one Air Arabia flight. In addition, seven flights of Pakistan International Airlines would be repatriating citizens of Pakistan the April 20 to 28, 2020.
Also read: Govt issues list of PIA flights to repatriate Pakistanis in UAE
The first repatriation flight of PIA took off on Saturday, April 18, carrying 227 people to Islamabad. While four additional flights repatriated 1,000 Pakistanis to Lahore and Karachi on Monday, April 20.
Around 40,000 people had registered with the Pakistan Consulate in Dubai for repatriation recently. It includes over 10,000 overseas Pakistanis who were rendered jobless because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Recently, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE's Foreign Minister, and Pakistan's Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi held a telephonic conversation where Qureshi thanked the UAE government for the support in combating covid-19 as well as for releasing 400 Pakistani prisoners, and their subsequent repatriation to Pakistan.
While exchanging views on the global outbreak of Covid-19, the two Foreign Ministers agreed on the importance of enhanced bilateral cooperation to jointly address the challenges.
Pakistan's foreign minister also informed Sheikh Abdullah of the efforts being made by the government for repatriation of the stranded Pakistanis from UAE to Pakistan.
waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com

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• Pakistan