With the support of its diplomatic missions abroad, Oman has completed one of the most complex and important missions of repatriating thousands of its citizens stranded  in several countries.  

As many as 740 Omanis constituting the last batch of those wishing to be repatriated from other countries in view of the COVID-19 pandemic returned to the sultanate over the past couple of days, bringing the total to 3,746 returnees. 

‘The last batch of citizens who expressed their desire to return to the sultanate have returned. With this final batch, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) has completed the programme that it had been supervising in cooperation with other authorities,’ MoFA stated.  

The missions were critical as most of the countries had stopped normal passenger flights in the wake of the Novel Coronavirus outbreak. The largest number of Omanis were brought back from America and Canada in several flights, while significant number also returned from Australia and New Zealand.  

Oman Air operated a special flight on April 10 to bring citizens home from Tanzania.  The embassies of Oman in Islamabad and New Delhi also worked tirelessly to fly back Omani citizens stranded in Pakistan and India. 

While SalamAir flew back people from Pakistan, Oman Air flew to three Indian cities of Kochi, Bengaluru and Chennai same day and returned with 111 citizens to Muscat.