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Travelers arriving from Europe at Incheon International Airport on Mar. 27. (Yonhap News)

Kim Su-yeon, a Korean student studying in Spain, managed to buy a ticket last week to return to her home country. As the novel coronavirus outbreak in Spain took a serious turn, people were barred from going outside their homes and schools were closed, prompting Kim to pack up basic belongings and hurry back to South Korea. Her health status was checked at the airport, and since returning home she has been in self-isolation, keeping a maximum distance from family members.

“In Spain, it’s tough to get tested even when you have symptoms, and if you are diagnosed with the coronavirus, only elderly people and those in critical condition can be hospitalized, so everyone else has no choice but to stay home,” she explained.

“I kept worrying that if I were diagnosed in Spain, I wouldn’t be able to get treatment and I wouldn’t have any family members looking after me,” she said. Concluding that she would be “far better off” in South Korea, she made the decision to return home. She had become increasingly nervous whenever one of her roommates coughed, and she also faced difficulties with a phobic climate where Asians were referred to as “corona,” she explained.

“There were a lot of Korean students in the city where I was, but the universities have also closed and you can’t travel anywhere,” she said.

“A lot of people want to return home, but it’s become difficult to find flights to South Korea even in the 3 to 4 million won [US$2,448-3,264] price range,” she added.

After Italy, Spain has been the second hardest-hit country in Europe, with 2,991 total deaths and 42,058 diagnosed coronavirus cases as of Mar. 24.

As the coronavirus pandemic has spread across the globe, the number of overseas Koreans like Kim who are opting to return home has been rapidly rising. With South Korea drawing notice for its outstanding model of disease prevention -- including proactive testing and transparent disclosure of information -- more and more overseas Koreans are hoping to return to the relative safety of their home country.

S. Korea to organize 2 flights for citizens stranded in Italy

The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced on Mar. 25 that it plans to send aircraft for temporary services in Italy, with target departure dates of Mar. 31 and Apr. 1. The planes are set to carry a total of 581 overseas Koreans residing in Italy, including 430 from Milan and its environs and 151 from Rome and surrounding areas. The Association of Korean Residents in Italy had originally planned to charter flights directly with a Korean airline but ran into several difficulties, prompting the South Korean government to finally take action. Meeting with reporters on Mar. 25, a MOFA senior official said, “The number of people being diagnosed and dying in Italy has continued to rise, and it’s become a situation where South Korean citizens are having difficulty receiving appropriate medical services.”

Many South Koreans in the US are also choosing to return home. On Mar. 23, a total of 2,418 people entered South Korea from the US – 2,144, or 89%, of them South Korean citizens. One-way tickets from New York City to Incheon have been consistently sold out. Europe is experiencing a similar situation. The increasing difficulty of finding tickets as an increasing number of individual South Koreans have begun returning from Spain and Germany has prompted consideration of group arrangements. The Association of Korean Residents in Spain announced plans to conduct research through Mar. 30 on demand for return flights. In Germany, round-trip air service with South Korea is to be temporarily halted next month, leading local Koreans to look into demand for specially arranged flights. Korean Air has asked the Federal Association of Korean Residents in Germany to conduct a demand survey as it weighs arranging flights between Apr. 1 and 8 for overseas Koreans hoping to return home.

Growing numbers of Koreans hoping to return from other countries including the Philippines, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Morocco, Bolivia, and Chile have led to different forms of support from the South Korean government, including increased flights, irregular flights, and temporary usage of other countries’ airlines. As more overseas Koreans return home, the percentage of South Korean nationals out of all arrivals have risen from around half as of Mar. 16 to 90% as of Mar. 23.

By Kim So-youn and Park Min-hee, staff reporters

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