Nepal gives many tourists 1-year travel ban ‘for overstaying’ amid Covid-19

Mr M came to Nepal from South America in March 2020. As Nepal was relatively free of the Covid-19 pandemic, he had come here on a holiday with his wife. But, a few weeks after his arrival, Nepal went on lockdown; the government cancelled all flights in and out of the country.

Stuck in Nepal with nowhere to go, the couple rented an apartment in Pokhara and decided to stay there until flights resumed. But, things did not change as much as they hoped they would. There were repatriation flights out of Kathmandu in August 2020, but those were few and far between and none of them flew to South America. While commercial flights did resume in late 2020, they were limited and tickets cost three times more than the actual fare.