Covid-19: Nigerian evacuees from Thailand must pay N297,600 for quarantine, feeding -FG

Nigerians willing to be evacuated from Thailand because of the Covid-19, may have some tough times as the Federal Government has instructed that they must pay the sum of N297,600 for quarantine, isolation, accommodation center or hotels and feeding before departure or arrival from Nigeria.

A statement signed by the Head of Chancery of the Nigerian Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, Nicholas Uhomoibhi, warned that the embassy has been instructed not to airlift any evacuee, who fails to pay the above fee.

This was confirmed to BusinessDay on Friday by a reliable source from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who said “the statement is true because that is the government position”. He gave no further details.

Part of the statement reads: “I am directed to bring to your attention that due to the measures that are beyond the control of the COVID-19 local organizing team in Nigeria, all evacuees going to Nigeria henceforth are to now pay for their quarantine, isolation, accommodation center or hotels before departure and arrival in Nigeria.

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” In this regard, all prospective evacuees are to note the negotiated rate below:

Accommodation- N15,000×16 days-N240,000,

Feeding-N3,600×16 days-N57,600

Total-N297,600.”

The statement added that “the rates were negotiated in Nigeria and the embassy has been instructed not to airlift any evacuee who fails to pay the above fee”.

This development might be due the paucity of funds to take care of the huge number of Nigerians, about 4,000 of them that have indicated interest to return home from different parts of the world following the pandemic.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama during one of the briefings of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Covid-19, said that about 600 Nigerians have so far been evacuated from United Arab Emirates (UAE), United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US) in the last one week.

He however said that subsequent evacuation will be staggered to allow those in the quarantine and isolation to finish their mandatory 14-day isolation before more people will be brought home.