The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has announced the evacuation of eight Singaporeans previously in Iran.

Evacuated from Iran

In a statement on Mar. 22, 2020, MFA said that the group arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia after boarding a repatriation flight from Tehran, Iran.

The flight was arranged by the Malaysian government for its citizens.

The eight Singaporeans will serve a 14-day quarantine in Kuala Lumpur —which is required by the Malaysian health authorities— before returning to Singapore.

In their statement, MFA also thanked the Malaysian government and the Embassy of Malaysia in Tehran for accepting its request to help evacuate the Singaporeans from Iran.

It was not stated how long these Singaporeans were in Iran for.

Previous batches evacuated from Wuhan

In the early days of the outbreak, a number of Singaporeans were similarly evacuated from Wuhan.

A total of 266 Singaporeans were flown back from the epicentre in two batches, one on Jan. 30 and another on Feb. 9.

The Singaporeans returned via Scoot flights, and were quarantined for 14 days upon arrival.

The evacuees were also accompanied by MFA Consular Officers, who chose to fly there knowing the risks.

These officers had to head to Wuhan, account for all the Singaporeans and their families slated to leave the city, chaperone them home, and finally hand them over to the relevant other agencies to be screened and quarantined.

You can read more about their stories here.

Top photo from Ninara via Flickr