COVID-19: European Union supports repatriation of EU citizens from Morocco

The European Union is working on all fronts to assist European citizens across the world who are affected by travel issues do to the COVID-19 outbreak.High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell spoke to Morocco Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita on Sunday, 15 March, to address the situation of European citizens trying to return to Europe and expressed his satisfaction that a solution was found with Member States and that return flights can continue until 19 March. Yesterday, Austria activated the European Civil Protection Mechanism requesting consular assistance to support the process of repatriation of Austrian and other EU citizens from Marrakech, Morocco. With transport costs co-financed by the Commission, an Austrian plane landed in Vienna early this morning, successfully repatriating some 290 citizens. Commissioner for Crisis Management,Janez Lenarčič said: “We will do all we can to support EU citizens. The EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism has now via 24/7 service of our Emergency Response Coordination Centre facilitated the repatriation of over 800 EU citizens to Europe from China, Japan, Oakland, U.S. and most recently from Morocco.” High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell, supported by the EEAS and in particular EU Delegations worldwide – is working to support coordination among EU Member States in addressing the consular issues arising from the current situation, including repatriation of EU citizens from third countries.