Coronavirus: 300 Chinese stuck in Philippine airports after Manila’s travel ban on Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China
- Chaos as airlines cancel flights in wake of travel ban
- News comes as Manila says it is still awaiting test results on nearly 70 people suspected of carrying the deadly virus.
Three hundred Chinese passengers have been stranded at airports in the Philippines following Manila’s decision on Sunday to restrict travel to and from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.
The travellers were stranded because airlines had cancelled their flights to China, said the Immigration Department spokeswoman Dana Sandoval, and not because the Philippines was preventing them from leaving.
The Philippines is no longer accepting any traveller arriving from any of the three areas – including those transiting through – apart from foreigners with permanent resident visas for the Philippines and returning Filipinos. It is also preventing all Filipinos, except those with dual nationality, from leaving for those areas.
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Foreign nationals in the Philippines are still allowed to leave for mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau, if they can find a flight.
Sandoval said the Chinese embassy was now making arrangements to repatriate the 300 Chinese who were stranded.
The news came as the Philippine government revised its number of recorded ‘suspected coronavirus cases’ to 80, with Chinese patients accounting for nearly all the cases, according to Health Secretary Francisco Duque. Just two of these cases so far have been confirmed; a man who died on Saturday and a woman who remains under observation. 10 of the 80 cases, including a second man who died, have since proved negative. Sixty-seven Chinese are in isolation in hospitals, awaiting test results.
Some of the Chinese travellers stranded at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport said they “totally understood” the ban, though others were frustrated, saying they had no access to food or water. The airport frequently features on lists of the world’s worst airports, partly due to its lack of dining options.
Meanwhile, immigration spokeswoman Sandoval confirmed that “temporarily, all Filipino nationals who are in the country will not be allowed to depart for Hong Kong, China and Macau”.
She said that for those holding dual citizenship, “we allow departure upon presentation of the foreign passport”.
On Monday, the government widened the ban to include “the disembarkation of vessel crews from China” and ship passengers. It also cancelled all boarding privileges of relatives of Filipino seafarers and of members of NGOs “extending emotional and spiritual help to seafarers”, the state-owned Philippine News Agency said, quoting Philippine Ports Authority general manager Jay Daniel Santiago.
As for those coming to Manila, Sandoval said “even transiting passengers, the moment you have a layover [in any airport in China, Hong Kong or Macau within 14 days of arrival in Manila], you will not be allowed to depart to the Philippines.”
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GMANews said the bureau had barred a Filipino who was a permanent resident of Hong Kong from leaving, but had allowed her son who had a British passport to board a Cathay Pacific flight. It named the woman as Andrea Roa Buco.
Even foreigners with permanent resident visas and returning Filipinos will be required to undergo a 14-day quarantine.
However, it’s not yet clear where that quarantine will be. Among the sites the government is considering is the 10,000-bed drug rehabilitation centre at Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija.
Meanwhile, 40 Filipinos stuck in Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the virus, have asked to be repatriated. Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Ernesto Abella said Manila hoped to fetch them “within the week”.
