By Staff Writer
Stranded students who have completed overseas scholarship studies are coming home at the end of this month, September 2020.
Cabinet gave the approval nod this week for a repatriation flight scheduled in just over two weeks’ time.
Arrangements are being made with Air New Zealand for a chartered trip to fly out the students direct from Australia to Samoa.
Students from as far away as Japan and China are booked on the flight along with those from Papua New Guinea and Australia.
A press statement on the Cabinet decision did not disclose how the students from China and Japan are arriving in Australia or if they have traveled there already.
There were no mention also of any arrangements for the return of students if any, attending University and other tertiary education in New Zealand.
Anxious parents of students should finally feel at ease after the long uncertain wait for the return of loved ones in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic threat.
The body of a Samoan student who died recently in Australia will also be flown home but the Cabinet statement did not disclose if it will be on the same flight.
The students repatriation flight is the first to be organized direct from Australia for quite sometime since the borders for international travel closed in Samoa due to the pandemic.
Samoan citizens stranded in Australia are also included in the same arranged flight.
A repatriation flight is also lined up direct from New Zealand next week on Friday 11 September 2020, essentially for RSE workers.
The flight was booked for arrival at Faleolo International Airport last Friday 28 August 2020 before growing worries at more new COVID-19 cases in New Zealand, canceled the trip.
Another repatriation flight is scheduled for a date to be finalized in October to clear up RSE workers left behind.
Cabinet has also approved the return of the body of the RSE worker who died on a road accident recently. No specific mention was made on which flight.
