Switzerland is writing off a small part of the flight repatriation …
(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Repatriated passengers were expected to cover 80% of their flight bills. Keystone / Salvatore Di Nolfi
The majority of the stranded Swiss who were repatriated during the first wave of the pandemic have paid back their share of the flight bills. But the Foreign Ministry has to write off 210,000 francs and is still bargaining for another 360,000 francs.
This content was published on January 6, 2022 – 4:45 p.m. January 6, 2022 – 4:45 p.m. swissinfo.ch/mga
In spring 2020, Switzerland flown over 7,000 people (4,000 Swiss and 3,000 non-Swiss) home.
The government agreed to take on 20% of the CHF 7.5 million bill to carry out the “historic” repatriation efforts.
Approximately 7,100 invoices were sent to people who were expected to pay the remaining 80% of airfares themselves. They were expected to pay their portion within 30 days of receiving the bills.
Of the 7.5 million francs in debt, around 6.9 million francs have been paid so far, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced to the Keystone-SDA news agency on Thursday.
But not all funds are repaid because some debtors could not be found or were declared insolvent. In addition, the authorities have gone to court to recover some outstanding debts, confirming an earlier report by the newspaper Blick.
As part of the repatriation program in March and April 2020, 35 flights were chartered to bring back citizens in countries as distant as Peru, Chile, Morocco, Ghana and the Ivory Coast.
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