It is a piece of good news that Malaysia is taking the initiative to bring back citizens of Malaysia who are stuck in Italy. With all the efforts by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is reported that 81 Malaysians had safely arrived in Kuala Lumpur this morning, according to the Oriental Daily. 

After several setbacks, Malaysia successfully evacuated Malaysian citizens living in Italy. The evacuation flight took off from Rome at 3.00 pm, 25th March (Italian time) and successfully arrived at 9.59 am this morning in Kuala Lumpur.

AirAsia volunteered to participate in this evacuation mission to bring fellow Malaysians home from Italy. 

There is a 7-hour time difference between Italy and Malaysia. The flight requires a 14-hour journey and there is also a requirement to stop over the Middle East to refuel. 

The recent actions of revoking landing permits for all aircraft by the Italian Civil Aviation Authority had caused the evacuation plan to be hindered in the past few days. 

However, the number of Malaysians returned were not as high as 82 citizens reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs earlier. 

All passengers who have successfully returned to Malaysia will be tested at the airport. If there are no symptoms, they will be sent to the Nilai Higher Education Leadership Academy (AKEPT) for 14 days of quarantine. After the quarantine is completed and the test result is negative, they will be allowed to return to their own homes.

According to the original evacuation plan, the evacuation flight was initially scheduled to evacuate the Malaysian citizens on 22 March 2020 (Italian time) and is expected to arrive back in Malaysia on 23 March 2020. 

At that time, Malaysians from all over Italy had been notified to gather in Rome to prepare for the evacuation in advance. They had to stay at a hotel near the airport to wait.

Yesterday (25 March) Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dato' Kamarudin Jaffar, pointed out that the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had a negotiation with the Italian government. This is to grant special permission for Malaysia to carry out the evacuation operation as soon as possible and arrange the trip for the return of 82 Malaysians. 

It is truly a successful mission!