Some Korean evacuees have yet to pay for COVID-19 chartered planes

Korean evacuees from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, leave the chartered Korean Air plane at Gimpo International Airport, Jan. 31. / Korea Times photo by Seo Jae-hoon

By Jun Ji-hye

Some Korean nationals, who returned home aboard government-chartered evacuation flights amid the COVID-19 pandemic, have yet to pay their agreed evacuation fees despite the government's consistent pressure for them to make payments, an independent lawmaker said Wednesday.

According to the documents that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had submitted to Rep. Kim Hong-gul, 2,000 Korean nationals were brought home through 10 chartered flights arranged by the government between January and July.

Among them, 13 people have yet to pay for the evacuation flights, with the unpaid airfares tallied at about 20 million won ($17,300).

The foreign ministry sent three chartered planes to the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus outbreak, to evacuate Korean nationals living there back to Korea in January and February.

Other Korean nationals living in Japan, Iran, Peru, Italy, Ethiopia and Iraq also returned home aboard government-chartered evacuation flights between February and July.

At the time, those who boarded the chartered planes were party to an agreement that required them to pay an airfare for the evacuation.

But 13 have postponed their payments despite the ministry's consistent phone calls urging them to pay for the flights, Rep. Kim said, noting that the ministry is considering taking legal action against them.

“The country is responsible to bring its nationals home safely, but the problem is that some people have paid their airfares, while others have not,” Rep. Kim said. “The ministry needs effective countermeasures to deal with them as it has to do unnecessary work such as calling them and taking legal action to get them to pay for the flights.”