KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 558 Malaysians stranded in Chennai and Tiruchirappalli (Trichy) in India due to the Covid-19 pandemic arrived home today.
Their flight via three special AirAsia aircraft landed at klia2 this morning.
The flight carrying 186 Malaysians from Chennai arrived at 5.50am while two other flights from Trichy with a total complement of 372 Malaysians onboard touched down at 5am and 6.40am respectively.
Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Kamarudin Jaffar said all of them (returning passengers) would be self quarantined for 14-days as required by the Health Ministry.
"The cost for the three flights was fully borne by MIC," he said.
He said Wisma Putra would like to extend its gratitude to MIC for rendering assistance to the government in bringing Malaysians back home.
"So far, MIC has assisted the government to fly home 1,119 Malaysians in India, including three babies," said Kamarudin in a statement today.
Kamarudin, who is the Foreign ministry’s Covid-19 Task Force chairman, said as of today, there are still 1,679 Malaysians stuck in India.
He said efforts were being undertaken to bring them back home as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, Kamarudin said 109 Malaysians stranded in Cambodia were expected to arrive home at 9pm tonight via a Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight.
He said six Cambodians stranded here had left via the MAS flight earlier today and arrived at their home country at 5.30pm .
"As the result of the close cooperation between Wisma Putra and the Cambodian government, Malaysians and Cambodians stranded in both countries were able to return to their respective homes.
"On behalf of the Malaysian government, I would like to thank our Cambodian counterpart for their continuous commitment in ensuring that all matters related to the coming home of stranded Malaysians and Cambodians were eased," he said.
He also thanked T7 Global Berhad, who as part of their corporate social responsibility effort to the country, bore the cost of the flight for Malaysians returning home.