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Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said on Tuesday that it has been decided to wait two days to complete the repatriation formalities for the Romanian citizens stranded in Morocco and also to check if there were other Romanians in the area.
His statement was made in the context in which, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 72 Romanian tourists are stranded in Morocco after the suspension of flights due to the novel coronavirus variant.
"It was a situation that we solved very quickly, because we already had the experience from last time, with the situation in South Africa and in this way we decided, today, that the 72 Romanian citizens, this is the figure that we have from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, should be able to prepare and be repatriated with a Tarom aircraft. We decided to allow for this afternoon and tomorrow so that all the formalities can be completed and to see if there are other Romanians in the area and then the following morning, the aircraft should go to Morocco and extract, bring the Romanian citizens home, and also showing availability, through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, to bring other European citizens to Bucharest and from there to have them transported to their countries of origin," said Ciuca, present at the inauguration of a road section on Giurgiu -Bucharest driveway.
The Prime Minister emphasized that each state takes decisions according to the evolution of the pandemic situation, and the Romanian authorities have activated all the mechanisms to keep under attention everything that is happening.
"That is why I had this emergency meeting of CNSU [the National Committee for Emergency Situations]. This morning, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I found out about the situation about Morocco's airspace being closed and at that moment I talked to Raed Arafat, with the Minister of Interior, with Minister Grindeanu, to see what possibilities there are to be able to intervene," Ciuca added.
The National Committee for Emergency Situations (CNSU) approved, on Tuesday, the repatriation of the Romanian citizens stranded in the Kingdom of Morocco. According to Decision 109, this will be done by activating the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, as a result of the suspension of all direct flights to this destination.
In order to implement these provisions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, through the Department for Emergency Situations, and the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, through Tarom, are empowered to take the measures within their competence, mentions the document.
At the same time, the costs will be ensured from the state budget, from the Budget Reserve Fund at the disposal of the Government, through the budgets of the ministries involved and through the European Civil Protection Mechanism, CNSU states.
AGERPRES
