Spain repatriates 108 Spaniards and six other Europeans stranded in Paraguay

Spain repatriated this Monday to 108 Spanish citizens and six Europeans stranded in Paraguay since mid-March, when the Government suspended flights with Spain and later closed the borders to prevent the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the Efe reported to the Embassy of Spain in Paraguay.

The 114 passengers repatriated from Asunción embarked on Monday afternoon on a flight by the Spanish airline Iberia from Buenos Aires, with 175 Spaniards on board who had been stranded in Argentina for the same reasons.

The repatriated citizens will land at the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport during the early hours of Tuesday.

Loaded with suitcases and barely waiting in lines, the repatriated travelers were the only ones who occupied the two open counters on Monday to control passports at Silvio Pettirossi International Airport, located in the town of Luque, on the outskirts of Asunción.

This repatriation flight brought the end point to more than a month of waiting, after the Paraguayan government suspended flights with Spain on March 13 and closed the borders a few days later.

Among the passengers, history repeated itself: they had all gone to Argentina or Paraguay on vacation and the closing of the borders rendered their return tickets invalid.

"It caught me by surprise, we had been here for two months and he was coming for a month," one of the travelers, Ramón Marín, told Efe, who after arriving in Madrid will have to wait another day to fly to his home on the island of Ibiza.

Gloria Brizuela, a Paraguayan resident in Spain for 14 years, had bought the return ticket for mid-March, when the flights were suspended and her return was processed with the Embassy.

"Very simple, just calling the Embassy and nothing more than a day and a half passed and they called me to give me an answer," he said.

This is the first flight organized by Spain from Asunción, although eleven Spanish citizens who were trapped in Paraguay with the closure of borders were able to leave the South American country on March 30 on a flight managed by Germany.

However, some returnees were also critical of the efforts and the Spanish government, such as Marcos Pérez, a young Spanish man who traveled to Paraguay on vacation and was scheduled to return to Spain on March 14.

"As for the Government of Spain, it leaves much to be desired, because they have been slow to bring us and in other countries they have flown before," he told Efe.

Pérez, like the other travelers, paid about $ 408 for the passage on the Iberia flight, although everyone hopes to claim the cost of the return ticket from the airlines they were going to travel with before the connections to Europe were suspended.

The Spanish Embassy in Paraguay still has a list with "more than a hundred Spaniards" who would like to be repatriated, although as the ambassador, Javier Hernández, assured, everyone was offered this opportunity "in the flight conditions, it's not free and it has a cost. "

"This flight was very clear that it was not for Spanish citizens residing abroad, in this case in Paraguay. The Government of Spain asks Spanish residents in Paraguay, as well as Spanish residents in other parts of the world, to they remain in their homes, each one in the country where they reside ", clarified the ambassador.

Along with the Spanish and other European citizens, citizens with dual nationality also flew, which is "perfectly legal, permitted and quite frequent."

Hernández did not specify if Spain prepares more repatriation flights from Paraguay, since that decision will depend on "the duration of the emergency and other factors."

So far, Paraguay registers nine deceased and 228 positive for coronavirus, since the first case was confirmed on March 7.