Stranded expats must wait for GCAA word to book tickets

Stranded expats must wait for GCAA word to book tickets

Thousands of stranded expatriates spread across 16 countries, hoping they would be able to return to their homes and jobs in the UAE, rushed to buy tickets at unprecedentedly higher rates whenever travel agencies opened booking, albeit briefly. Stranded in their home countries for three months "” six in the case of residents stuck in South Africa "” these expatriates have been away from their jobs and families, and in some cases inches away from visa expiry. Inbound travellers from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Indonesia, Liberia, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Uganda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Zambia, are not allowed to enter the UAE until they spend 14 days quarantining in a third nation. The UAE introduced the travel restrictions to control the spread of the newer variants of Covid-19. Since then, the stranded expats have left no stone unturned in their attempts to return to the UAE. While some have returned on charter flights by spending a whopping Dh25,000 per ticket, some quarantined themselves for 15 days in places as far as Armenia, Uzbekistan, Serbia, Ethiopia and Qatar. Such quarantine packages cost an average of Dh9,000 per passenger. The rest live in