Over 11,000 Brazilians Still Trying to Return Home During Covid-19 Pandemic

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – With the coronavirus epidemic spreading quickly around the world, several countries closed their borders and declared quarantine to prevent the transmission of the disease. This meant that thousands of travelers were left stranded on foreign shores, including Brazilians.

To try to answer some of the heartbreaking pleas from stranded Brazilians, the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Anac (National Civil Aviation Agency) made available on Sunday (March 22nd) forms for Brazilians who are abroad during the crisis.

The registration will serve as a basis for Brazilian authorities to get a better picture of how many Brazilians are abroad and try to enable their return. According to Anac, by the end of the afternoon of Monday (March 23rd) almost 11,000 people had filled out a registration form.

For Silas Barbosa the ‘nightmare’ ended this past Sunday, when he finally arrived on Brazilian soil. He was one of hundreds trapped in a foreign land.

“I spent about five days trying by phone to get in touch with the airline company and going in person to the airport to try to fly back,” says the 31-year-old civil servant living in Brasilia. “There was a day when I spent eleven hours in a line at the airport to talk to TAP airline but was unsuccessful.”

Barbosa flew to Portugal on March 7th and was scheduled to return to Brazil on March 19th.

“I went to Portugal on vacation,” he explained to The Rio Times. “When the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the pandemic, I began to think about cutting my trip short. When they started to announce border closures, I started to panic; but by that time, the airline had canceled my ticket,” he says.

Although some, like Barbosa have been able to return, Brazilian officials are concerned about those still trying fly back. Officials at the country’s Ministry of Foreign Relations say that although more than 5,000 nationals have already been repatriated they estimate that another 6,000 are still waiting to return.

Among those waiting are 17 Brazilians stranded on a cruise ship. The ship, owned by Costa Cruises, started its voyage at the beginning of March, visited a few Brazilian ports and headed to Spain. But as the virus spread throughout Europe the cruise ship was prohibited from docking in Spain and was forced to head to Italy. Although many other nationalities have been allowed to leave the ship, these Brazilians remain on board, with no idea when they will be able to leave.

“This is a very difficult situation, we want to go back home, but we are waiting to see what Costa Cruises decides,” said Glauber Ribeiro, one of the passengers, to a national TV cable station on Tuesday.

In addition to Lisbon and Italy, large groups of stranded Brazilians have been reported in Peru and Mexico. Many say that they are unable to travel due to a lack of available flights to Brazil.

“Now I’m quarantined for the next fourteen days,” Barbosa tells us, but he says he doesn’t mind. Unlike many still trying to catch a flight, at least he is back in Brazil.