Phnom Penh
The bulletin board at Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh Airport indicated only five international flights on Thursday, two of which were canceled. One of the three remaining was bound for Doha, then for Paris. This plane, chartered by the French government and the French Embassy in Cambodia, embarked 412 of the 800 French non-residents stranded in the kingdom of Southeast Asia.
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Since the start of the coronavirus crisis, this is the first repatriation of this kind for Cambodia. The fault is the lack of a direct line with France, the massive cancellation of international flights and the closure of land borders with Thai and Vietnamese neighbors. "It is a real relief to be here," breathes Sokhon, through his mask, in the boarding queue. Living in Bordeaux but Cambodian by origin, he, his wife and their three children came to see family in the suburbs of Phnom Penh. “We had to leave on March 16 but all the flights were canceled so we were really stuck here. We are very happy to be able to return to France because it is our place of life, but we are worried about leaving family behind us. With the Cambodian health system, we really don't know what's going to happen to them. ”
There are families with children, sick people arriving at the end of treatment, penniless students…
Aurélie, from LyonMixed feelings are also shared by Jean-Marie and Francine, two Alsatians who came to visit their expatriate daughter. "I am relieved to return but I am a little apprehensive about confinement in France, especially in Strasbourg where the situation is critical" , recognizes Jean-Marie. His wife does not hide his concern either: "We are told about" social distancing "but the flight will be full to the brim so we do not know if we will arrive healthy in France. I am also worried about those who stay. ” Because only half of the French non-residents in Cambodia were able to return on Thursday. The French Embassy says it is working on other options for those who could not take this first flight, but places are limited and the wait is long.
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In solidarity, some have decided to pass their turn. This is the case of Aurélie and Jean-Marc, who could have left on Friday. "There are families with children, sick people arriving at the end of treatment, penniless students ... So we made the choice not to take this plane, explains the woman in her forties from Lyon. We are fortunate to have a flight on March 28 which has not yet been canceled. We hope it will be fine. "
Confined to Sihanoukville
Like other countries in Southeast Asia, Cambodia has long seemed immune to the virus. If it is certainly undervalued, the number of cases has been increasing for two weeks, and first preventive measures, such as the closing of schools or the prohibition of religious gatherings, have been taken. Officially, the country has only 98 cases of coronavirus (and 10 cures), including 36 in French. The majority come from a group of retirees from Alsace and Lorraine, who have been traveling to Laos and Cambodia since March 7. Thirty-one of the 36 participants, as well as their two Cambodian guides, tested positive for Covid-19 and placed in quarantine in the Hotel Indépendance in Sihanoukville, a seaside town in the south of the country. A 67-year-old man with pneumonia was transferred to a hospital in Phnom Penh.
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"We would prefer to be in France but we would not see our loved ones anyway," advances by telephone one of the positive people confined to Sihanoukville, who wishes to remain anonymous. Patients see a doctor twice a day and should not leave their rooms. "Very few of us have symptoms and the medical follow-up is very good," she continues. So it is better to take our pain patiently and leave here healed, rather than taking the risk of infecting other people. ” For the moment, no medical repatriation is planned.