Running the COVID-19, US Task Force wave works to bring more American home

On a normal day, the US consular officer in their duties Marian Han Nguyen sleepy one-woman office in Cusco, Peru, ranging from passports Formalization American children die cutting. But when Lima Peru borders announced on March 16 includes the spread of Corona to stop, Nguyen work changed overnight Lara Croft-style bounty hunter. He was 24 hours, an unknown number of Americans on the track, the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu trek, a train trip of five hours away, so they could escape before it closed its airports. Then they had to find out like everyone else to go home on the left. Nguyen grabbed US Trekker groups on social media and their personal mobile number almost every American who called or distributed via e-mail. When the authorities closed the traffic, Nguyen, five months pregnant, was about 45 minutes each way to his office to the high altitude of the Andean city, police checks to negotiate. After all, they have helped about 1,300 Americans 10 return charter flights. stay connected to her and her husband, the 30 or so Americans are keeping them in contact with or in Cusco. And to mark six months pregnant, she does not try to over-react or if the cold cough. Nguyen is part of a global network of hundreds of State Department and other US labor officials before returning home – and after – have closed borders in the world due to pandemic slammed crown. So far, the State Department has about 65,000 US citizens, as a group of Americans in Wuhan boarded the first flight home charter of the United States repatriated on 29 January, assisted by officials as a diplomat William Cocks from US Consulate in Shanghai. He had hours to pack his family at home, then help get dozens of American aircraft recycled cargo anxiety and fly with them in California, all the while dressed in a Hazmat “space suit” to protect it from viruses. Nearly four months later, about 15,000 Americans are still flying on the waiting list of the Department of State again around the world. The race for the 7/24 crisis cell was principal deputy assistant secretary for consular affairs Ian Brownlee, coordinates a global multi-agency teams, boats for Americans stranded on the Amazon River, a US plane diverted to illicit drug traffic monitoring Latin rented sent to pick up American American American campers to larger airports from remote areas to the ferry and a bus to the edge of the Sahara. After scrambling aircraft found about 1,500 Americans to carry, he wanted to go home, Jennifer Rasamimanana, Consul General of the USA in Casablanca, Morocco found themselves called to team members: “We have the planes! We airplanes!” Not everything it went so smooth. In Cusco, quarantined, the Peruvian authorities have asked a group of hikers mostly Americans in their hostel for two weeks after guests have contracted COVID-19 reported, then sprayed with a bleach smell before finally allowed to leave. Some came on a plane medevac State Department because they had been “exposed to the virus,” says Brownlee. Other times, Americans have seats on flights, on request then their opinion has changed at the airport. Rasamimanana callback to secure one of these coveted spots for a surfer who appeared with his surfboard in Casablanca. He said he was “waiting for the last minute” to go so you can “get that one big wave.” Stay up to date on the growing threat to global health, by signing up for our daily newsletter crown. But many Americans also feel that the government should do more. They have complained on social media that can not be achieved can someone like Rasamimanana and Nguyen were, or if they did, they were told to expect protection in place in countries were hotels were closed and foreigners were not allowed, as the carrier of visible pandemic. Some say they simply can not afford to leave. discuss on an open WhatsApp group of Americans, if South Africa leave members complained that the pre-COVID-19, you could get a flight home for less than a thousand dollars, but now they were required to pay at least double. Yogini Tatiana Dennis chose South Africa despite the cost of their work counseling HIV patients to leave was canceled due to the pandemic. “I was heartbroken … I had no other place to go, but at home,” he wrote in an e-mail. UN Peacekeeper Natalie says Kosloff convince them to leave an employee of the Department of State their places in Goma, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She has asthma, a pre-existing condition that could make them more susceptible to the virus, and the diplomat warned that panic could trigger unrest on the pandemic – and possible attacks on foreigners have been blamed for bringing the virus, ” I was very scared of me will be in a situation that I could actually have no medical care, “recalls Washington, DC, where he lives with Airbnb and working remotely. He promised the State Department of the United States once again the cost of a flight from Goma British Embassy in Washington to fly to London to pay $3500, and estimates the whole experience which costs about $10,000 out of the bag has. According to the law, the State Department charges an average rate regime for the aircraft charter and commercial carriers are hiking up costs do with areas sometimes almost empty for the flight. If the Americans do not repay the promissory notes, bills of exchange they sign legally binding before the flights on board, according to US law, are not likely will be issued a new passport. Megan Phaneuf, Vice Consul General in Quito, Ecuador, says his team spent hours on the phone with the undecided Americans who “put a little ‘… you want to go, but do not have the money.” He says he tries to help think about their options: Do they travel family borrow money from? They must remain the country’s resources? The goal is “finally at a point where they will be happy with their decision,” he says. “We can not do it for them.” The State Department also offers short-term loans for travelers who do not receive at home on the funds. Phaneuf and his team in Ecuador have evacuated 3,400 people helped them letters give safe passage for road closures for the curfew. But are about 90,000 American retirees in Ecuador, the “planning to stick to,” he says. For them, the decision is more complicated because they leave their full-time homes, perhaps for being with adult children who may pose a risk of infection for them. Brownlee main concern now: a second wave of returnees, shocked by the next wave of the pandemic, the World Health Organization warned that developing countries might encounter. The Department of State has no automatic line for each US citizen living abroad. Since March, about 200,000 Americans have signed membership program for the Department of State Smart Traveler, which provides them with information about what is to come. Two million Americans have already been registered, but that is only a fraction of the nine million Americans estimated by the State Department living abroad. Brownlee is blunt with his advice to those who have chosen to stay: think about where you are and the last time if the country driving trip, and your paycheck stops the agent. Think about it, if you could get medical treatment if you or if you can get a treat infected with the virus, if you have another illness. If you have a house in the continental United States, where you can ride out the storm coming, or how they compare with the “that’s towards the beach roaring tsunami” after the earthquake, which is COVID-19? I can not wait to tell the US embassy or the consulate next to you what to do. “We The People usually do not say now is the time to leave the country … We encourage people to assess their situation,” says Brownlee. But he says: “If you stay abroad, you should be prepared to stay where you are for the near future.” Please send tips, leads and stories from the front to [email protected].
Picture copyright by Johan Ordonez- AFP / Getty Images