A special State Department task force has helped more than 27,000 Americans return to the U.S. homeland from at least 50 countries in recent weeks as part of an ongoing effort to repatriate U.S. citizens amid the global coronavirus pandemic.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the figure Tuesday, signaling a significant increase in repatriations since a week ago when U.S. officials faced mounting outcry from Americans stranded in dozens of countries, where movement has become difficult due to social distancing lockdowns.
“Never in the department’s 230 year history have we led a worldwide evacuation of such enormous geographic complexity and such geographic scale,” Mr. Pompeo told reporters a State Department headquarters. “We have no higher duty to the American people than to pull this off. I’ve never been more proud of how the team has done than I am today.”
While the total number of U.S. citizens still seeking help returning home is difficult to calculate because of varying commercial flight availability and shifting circumstances and travel restrictions around the world, officials have put the figure in the thousands.
“The 24/7 Repatriation Task Force will continue to bring home thousands more Americans in the coming days and weeks,” Mr. Pompeo said Tuesday, adding that the State Department is working closely with other federal agencies to identify travel options — and in extreme cases engage in elaborate extraction operations.
While he did not provide names of individuals repatriated, the secretary of state pointed to one case that involved a “bio-containment transport” of an American from the South Asian nation of Bhutan who was infected with COVID-19.
Mr. Pompeo said the person was flown to Baltimore, Md., via Kathmandu, Nepal. “This was one of the most complex medical evacuations in history and the State Department pulled it off,” he said.
He also pointed to the case of an American “double lung transplant recipient” in Honduras who was running out of medications in the Central American nation. “We got him home,” Mr. Pompeo said. “That man later told our team that we saved his life.”
Mr. Pompeo’s comments came in the wake of assertions last week by Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Ian Brownlee that the repatriation effort had gained significant momentum.
On Friday, Mr. Brownlee said that more than 15,000 people had been brought home from at least 40 countries.
Much of the effort has involved American diplomats at embassies and consulates helping U.S. citizens identify and get seats on a dwindling number commercial airline flights still moving between global capitals. There are also cases in which State Department officials have chartered planes to bring groups of citizens home, and in some instances individual groups have chartered their own planes.
Mr. Brownlee said fees for flights chartered by the State Department are initially waived for passengers, but that officials “are required by law to take a promissory note in the amount of the pre-crisis fare.”
Mr. Pompeo signaled Friday that the flight chartering operations are indefinite.
“I want to deliver a message to Americans who are still abroad,” the secretary of state said. “We will remain steadfast and committed to getting you all back. We do not know in some countries how long the continued commercial flights in your country may continue to operate. We can’t guarantee the U.S. government’s ability to arrange charter flights indefinitely where commercial flights no longer exist.”
“I urge Americans to register with their nearest embassy,” he said, “and work your way back here.”
• Guy Taylor can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.
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