Singaporeans stuck in Morocco due to sudden announcement of international flight suspension

A number of Singaporeans are stuck in Morocco after the kingdom suddenly announced strict border restrictions in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

The sudden announcement resulted in over thousands of travellers from different countries being stuck at borders, ports and airports.

A Singaporean by the name of Ms Koh, shared with TOC that she was earlier stranded in the country due to the cancellation of international flights on Sunday.

According to Ms Koh, she made a call to the Singapore embassy to seek for assistance immediately after the announcement but was only advised by the embassy to book a flight out of the country. The embassy also purportedly shared that about 50 Singaporeans are still stranded in Morocco when she called.

She shared that it was a chaotic scene at the airport and had to queue for 4.5 hours on Tuesday (17 Mar), just to get her flight ticket out of Morocco and over to London where she would then take another flight next week back to Singapore.

It is unknown how many more Singaporeans are still stuck in Morocco.

TOC has earlier contacted Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday for their response.

Stricter border restrictions in midst of increasing infection cases

Morocco’s Ministry of Health has 49 confirmed infected cases and two deaths as of Wednesday.

Morocco has earlier suspended air, sea and land links with European countries and Algeria on last Friday (13 Mar), as well as taking measures to confine citizens to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The following Saturday (14 Mar), it suspended flights to and from another 25 countries, the foreign ministry said, extending the earlier ban that covered China, Spain, Italy, France and Algeria.

Then on Sunday (15 Mar), it extended the ban, suspending all international commercial flights “until further notice”.

Still, France announced that Rabat had agreed to allow repatriation flights for French nationals.

According to information provided by Moroccan airports and embassy notifications, several other special flights were heading out of the North African country for Europe on Sunday, mostly to Belgium, Spain and Germany.

The French embassy, like other foreign missions, has set up a special crisis cell and replied to more than 8,500 messages on Twitter from tourists seeking assistance.

Morocco has suspended all football matches, closed all schools, halted flights with nine countries and cancelled gatherings of more than 50 people.