Foreign Ministry confirms Iraqi students on their way back from Wuhan, China
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraq’s Foreign Minister Muhammad Ali al-Hakim on Tuesday confirmed that Iraqi students in Wuhan, China, are on their way to the capital Baghdad.
“Our students and their families in the Chinese city of Wuhan are now on their way to the [Baghdad] airport, and we thank our ambassador and consul in Beijing for their efforts,” Hakim wrote on Twitter.
Late last month, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said it was working with Chinese authorities to evacuate Iraqi students from the city of Wuhan, which is thought to be where the deadly virus first infected humans.
A foreign ministry statement at the time noted that the Iraqi embassy in China had not recorded cases of infection among the students.
Read More: Iraq working with China to evacuate students from city affected by coronavirus outbreak
Several countries around the globe have announced the evacuation of their nationals from Wuhan while many have banned flights to and from China.
As of Wednesday, Chinese authorities said they had recorded 495 deaths, with thousands of confirmed cases.
Meanwhile, in the Kurdistan Region, as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus, officials at Erbil International Airport (EIA) will not allow people coming from China to enter the autonomous Kurdish region, including foreigners if they have traveled to the country after Jan. 14, 2020.
The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Ministry of Health affirmed in a statement on Saturday that there have been no cases of the coronavirus in the Kurdistan Region. It noted that three travelers from China were sent back upon arrival at the Erbil airport.