PHNOM PENH: Tourists in Cambodia are stranded in the country due to restrictions set by airports to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
With world governments enforcing strict policies, travellers must obtain a health certificate from a hospital before leaving any of the country’s international airport to return to their respective home country.
Cambodia Association of Travel Agents president Chhay Sivlin told the Khmer Times that all airlines required their passengers to have their health certified by the French non-profit Pasteur Institute, here, ensuring that they were not infected with the virus.
She said stranded tourists should get their health checked at Chak Angre Hospital, here, as the certification was issued by the Pasteur Institute.
However, Chhay said the institute would not check those who did not show symptoms of the virus as the number of test kits in the country was limited.
The institute said it would only issue “positive test certificates”.
“We have heard that doctors at the referral hospital are refusing to check some people if they stated they are (in the country) for travelling purposes, explaining that there are many seriously ill patients to look after,” she added.
“This is the conundrum that tourists are facing because they need to return home as many had spent all their money on returning flight tickets, only to have their flights cancelled. This is made worse as that they can’t be refunded.”
Chhay said this had been happening since the last week and that some 100 tourists were asking to receive health certifications daily.
“We need government intervention to decide which other referral hospitals can be accepted for the certifications,” she said.
On visa overstay fines, Interior Ministry secretary of state Sok Phal said he was seeking an approval to waive the daily US$10 overstay fines for the stranded tourists.
Meanwhile, United Kingdom citizens stranded in Cambodia managed to organise a private charter flight to take 103 British tourists home.
Members of the “Stuck in Cambodia UK” Facebook group said they had approached the UK Embassy, here, for help but claimed they were given little aid apart from “standard emails and vague promises of assistance”.
A member, Jerry Lewis, then hatched the plan to privately charter a plane to Kuala Lumpur that would then connect with a scheduled flight to the UK.
He met Malaysia Airlines Bhd representatives and the airline, after receiving authorisation from the Cambodian government, agreed to run a special charter plane for UK citizens.
Lewis then collected the funds for the charter flight and the group has since reached UK.