With countries closing borders and restricting travel over COVID-19 fears, more than 13,000 Americans have been stranded abroad.
When Jesse Curry and his family arrived in Lima, Peru, on March 13, the Florida native said life in the South American city seemed impervious to the novel coronavirus without a mask in sight. When they woke up on March 15, that all changed.
But some US embassy employees have pointed the finger at the State Department. One foreign service officer told CNN that"every embassy is just making it up as we go along" because the agency hasn't given them better guidance. "Since then, the communication from them has been extremely limited and the information is often outdated if not just completely wrong," Curry said."Right now the US embassy is closed as far as I can tell. Nobody's really answering at all."
In the absence of the US embassy, Americans citizens stranded in the country began organizing on WhatsApp and in a Facebook group called"Americans Stuck in Peru" to take stock of how many were stuck in the country and share updates. Americans have also created Facebook groups in other countries, including Ecuador and India.
"If you look at the flights that people have been able to book that have later been canceled, it really paints a picture that we could be here indefinitely," Curry said."The communication from the State Department is not helping that at all." The 65-year-old optometrist said he's also had difficulty getting in touch with the staff at the American embassy. But Goins came to the State Department's defense, suggesting the real problem was"pushy" Americans.
Flight cancellations and border closures complicate Americans' ability to get homeREUTERS/Sebastian Castaneda Curry and other Americans received an email that the US was working on getting flights for citizens if they register for them. Despite registering his family almost immediately, Curry said he has yet to receive any confirmation or when his family could get a flight back home.
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