Unsanitary conditions and a hotel near a brothel: 180 tourists from Ukraine and Belarus stuck in Zanzibar

For the third day, about 180 Ukrainians cannot fly out of Zanzibar (Tanzania) due to a flight delay. There are no exact forecasts when exactly they will be able to return home from vacation. It is reported by Air force.

Photo: Shutterstock

This is flight PQ6972 of SkyUp airlines. He was supposed to fly to Kiev on February 13 at 12:50 pm local time, passengers of the flight told BBC News Ukraine.

This information is confirmed by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, a tour operator and an air carrier.

There are also citizens of Belarus among tourists, passengers report.

“There is no plane yet. As we understand, the company does not have spare aircraft. We will wait either for them to fix it, or for them to send us a new plane, if at all possible,” says Kiev resident Alexey Bespalov, who has been waiting for the flight for the third day.

“The forecasts are unclear. For three days, the departure time has been changed every two hours, but we still haven’t taken off,” he adds.

Several passengers reported that not everyone was provided with a hotel last night. And those who were given housing, nevertheless, complained about poor conditions.

“We first spent the night on the street, slept on the grass, and then the group of passengers I was in was checked into a terrible hotel in a dangerous area of ​​Zanzibar City next to a local club and brothel,” says Bespalov.

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On Monday, February 15, he said, passengers were still transported to other hotels in groups of 20-30 people.

“We poke around hotels, everything is unsanitary, people with children sleep wherever they can. There is no exact information (about the departure - ed.), there is a delay every two hours,” another passenger on the flight, Evgeniy, complains to BBC News Ukraine.

On Instagram, one of the tourists was outraged that sometimes they had to sleep on the floor, including children. She also complained about power outages.

“We are not given water, I am silent about food. It’s completely unsanitary here, everyone is scared,” writes a user under the nickname choko.kate.

What do the authorities and the carrier say?

The Foreign Ministry confirms the information about the stuck tourists and assures that they are doing everything to help the citizens.

“About 180 Ukrainian tourists are stuck in Zanzibar. The plane broke down. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the embassy in Kenya are working with the tour operator to ensure that citizens have adequate conditions for their stay during the delay and resolve the issue of return as soon as possible,” says Foreign Ministry press secretary Oleg Nikolenko on Twitter.

The tour operator JoinUp and the air carrier assure that they have provided all tourists with proper conditions.

Difficulties with settlement are explained by the high season in Zanzibar, and delays in departure are explained by coronavirus restrictions, which make it difficult to organize a new flight.

“We managed to find rooms for comfortable accommodation of all tourists - now the settlement process is underway. Regarding the flight operation, the airline is working to obtain all necessary permits,” the statement reads.

According to JoinUp, on February 14, all tourists were also provided with a hotel and were “fully provided with food.”

In addition, the carrier and the tour operator claim that they have negotiated with partners in various countries in order to obtain permission for a new additional route and return tourists home.

“The anti-coronavirus restrictions of various countries on the crossing of borders by foreign citizens significantly complicate our operational capabilities to resolve this issue. This is now one of the main delay factors,” the statement said.

“We are sorry that this situation has caused unnecessary concern and affected the plans of our tourists,” they add.

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They plan to return tourists on a new flight PQ 1972 Zanzibar - Antalya - Kyiv. He was supposed to take off on February 14 in the evening, but the SkyUp board shows that the flight was postponed to 14:30 on February 15.

On February 15, there is no flight from Zanzibar on the board at all. The next flight from Zanzibar is February 16 at 12:50.

Note that the correspondent of BBC News Ukraine, which recently visited Zanzibar, did not encounter such problems during the trip.

“In general, there were no problems with the flight - we departed from Kyiv an hour later, but arrived there on time. It was the same on the return flight - we took off more than an hour later, but arrived in Kyiv with a delay of only 15 minutes from the specified time,” she says.

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