01Background
On 22 March 2020 Mauritius closed its borders to contain the pandemic. Some three thousand nationals found themselves stranded outside the country, including some two thousand on cruise ships.
02Objectives
To ensure the safe return of nationals in compliance with health requirements, and to support them financially while they waited.
03Results
The ministry handled more than a thousand calls and some three thousand five hundred emails. In April 2020 the Minister announced repatriation flights from Johannesburg, Paris and India, combined with the shipment of medicines and vaccines, as well as a Rs 50,000 loan at 3% through the SBM for stranded Mauritians. The repatriation of seafarers continued from June to August 2020.
04Impact
Mauritians stranded abroad, many of them seafarers, were gradually able to return home.