Italian Embassy Grateful To Malaysian Authorities For Facilitating Repatriation Of Italian Nationals

By V.Sankara KUALA LUMPUR, April 23 (Bernama) – The Embassy of Italy in Malaysia is grateful to the Malaysian authorities for their excellent cooperation in facilitating the Embassy to bring Italian nationals back to their country, said Italy's Ambassador to Malaysia Cristiano Maggipinto. He said 45 Italian citizens have been safely repatriated from Malaysia back to their country under the cooperation with the Malaysian government amid the travel restrictions imposed to control the spread of COVID-19 as of March-end. Maggipinto said other Italian nationals, who are mostly tourists, have been able to leave the country later through commercial flights and flights operated within the framework of the cooperation among European Union countries. “Some of my fellow citizens were able to leave the country...thanks to the fewer and fewer commercial flights which are still flying out of Malaysia,” he told Bernama in a reply. The ambassador said there were some 120 Italian nationals who were said to be stranded following the travel restrictions imposed as a result of the Movement Control Order (MCO) which began on March 18. “The list of the Italian citizens known to the Italian Embassy to be in this situation (stranded) is about 120 people but at the same time we learnt the presence of other Italian citizens who had never been in contact before with the Embassy,” he added. On the compliance level of the MCO among Italian nationals, he said so far there is no information by the Malaysian authorities on Italian citizens having been caught in breach of the order. -- BERNAMA