- Tour group operators and individual travellers alike now looking to the government for help in navigating exit
- One city resident who spoke to the Post said she had already seen three outbound flights she booked fall through
More than 140 Hong Kong tourists in Morocco were scrambling to find a way home on Wednesday as the North African country suspended all international passenger flights in response to the coronavirus pandemic, leaving many fearing they would be trapped.
Some holidaymakers pinned their hopes on catching one of a series of "exceptional" emergency flights reportedly authorised to repatriate tourists.
In a statement released Wednesday evening, the Immigration Department said that as of 6pm, 146 Hongkongers had contacted them seeking help in returning home.
The department said it had been in touch with authorities from China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong, the Chinese embassy in Morocco, the Security Bureau and the Travel Industry Council to assess the situation and determine how they could help.
But while local tour companies are among those seeking government assistance, one travel agency boss said it would be challenging to fly the residents back given the absence of direct flights.
According to the Travel Industry Council, four tour groups currently in Morocco, involving about 80 people, had been scheduled to return in just a few days.
"Since Morocco has suspended all international air connections, we have sought assistance from the Security Bureau. We are still waiting for their arrangements," the council's executive director, Alice Chan Cheung Lok-yee, said.
The country indefinitely halted all inbound and outbound flights from Sunday as part of coronavirus precautionary measures being replicated around the globe.
Citing the Moroccan Embassy in London, CNN said authorities announced 100 "exceptional" flights had been authorised to carry visitors home.
A Hong Kong woman, who refused to give her name, said she was trying to catch one of those flights on Wednesday with her friends.
The woman, in her 20s, said she had spent nearly HK$20,000 (US$2,600) on a series of ticket purchases in a bid to get home.
The first two flights she booked were subsequently cancelled, while a third was to a European country that is now barring entry to most foreign arrivals. A flight scheduled for March 24, meanwhile, fell after the ban and seemed almost certain to be cancelled as well.
Her fifth ticket, to London, is now her only hope.
"We won't know if it will be cancelled until the last minute," she said.
After initially planning to sightsee in Morocco from March 8 to 21, she heard the news about the scrapped flights on March 15.
"I feel so helpless. I am very afraid that I can't leave Morocco," she said, adding Hong Kong immigration officers only began collecting Hongkongers' information last night.
The woman was among the 57 individual travellers Civic Party lawmaker Jeremy Tam Man-ho said he was attempting to assist.
Speaking earlier in the day, Tam said many of those stranded had booked flights out of the country only to see them later cancelled.
"They called the Hong Kong Immigration Department. But the Immigration Department told them there was nothing it could do to help and asked them to call China's consulate," he said.
Johnny So Tsz-yeung, general manager of Sunflower Travel Service, said his company's tour group of 28 people was scheduled to return from Morocco on March 22.
He noted it would challenging to fly the travellers given the lack of direct flights. "It's not as simple as going to Japan," he said.
Another local tour operator, Goldjoy Holidays, has a group of 21 still in the African country.
Its chief operations officer, Carmen Chan, said the company had contacted both China's embassy in Morocco and the Travel Industry Council and was now waiting to hear back.
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