Hundreds of Chinese are stranded in Sweden due to covid-19 restrictions in China
Hundreds of Chinese are currently stranded in Sweden and can not return home due to covid-19 restrictions in China.
Media STV has talked to “Jian” (who really is something else but he would like to be anonymous) who worked in Borås but now can not return to his home country China, despite the fact that his work permit expired more than a month ago. He is now stuck with acquaintances in Borås.
About the situation, he says: “I am powerless and can do nothing. The embassy says to wait “.
Jian has been in Sweden and worked for a company for two years and now that his job is over, he wants nothing better than to return home. However, a month has passed and he still has not managed to get a ticket to China. The Chinese embassy in Sweden tells him to wait.
“It feels really hard,” says Jian.
Jian is not the only Chinese in this situation and many others cannot return home due to China’s strict covid-19 restrictions and the fact that there have been no flights to China from Sweden this year.
According to Jian, there are several hundred Chinese in the same place as him, many around Gothenburg and Stockholm as well and all support each other in a chat group.
“We can not stay here forever. We are now a few hundred who can not take us home. For about half of the people, their visas have expired,” says Jian
In an email to STV, the Chinese embassy in Sweden confirms that some students and workers have not been able to return to China and writes that they “take this seriously”. However, the embassy cannot answer when or how the Chinese will be able to return home or exactly how many people are affected.
Instead, the embassy states that Chinese authorities will take up air traffic “at an appropriate time, based on the covid situation in China”, and in its response to Swedish authorities appeals to make it easier for Chinese citizens, for example by extending residence permits and visas.
Jian says that it is also not possible to trust a transfer via another country, as air traffic to China is unstable from other countries as well. Covid tests and a special health certificate before departure are also required, which must be applied for through a Chinese embassy. He may risk being trapped elsewhere and there he is without a contact network.
“I am powerless and know nothing. It feels boring, he says.