For Canadian Elise Craig and her Peruvian husband Joseph Ruiz Cordova, it has become a race against time to come to Canada on the last repatriation flight facilitated by the federal government. With just days to go before that scheduled flight, the couple stranded in Peru is still pressing for the necessary paperwork to be permitted to board.
For Canadian Elise Craig and her Peruvian husband Joseph Ruiz Cordova, it has become a race against time to come to Canada on the last repatriation flight facilitated by the federal government.
With just days to go before that scheduled flight, the couple stranded in Peru is still pressing for the necessary paperwork to be permitted to board.
International travel restrictions had meant Cordova, who is not a Canadian citizen, would not be allowed to enter the country.
Craig said she was left with “two options that really aren’t options”: to return to Canada and leave her husband behind, or stay with him in one of the countries most affected by COVID-19.
The couple had fresh hope on June 8, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that foreign nationals who were immediate family members of Canadian citizens would be allowed to enter the country, starting at midnight that same evening.
But Craig said due to bureaucratic bungling it’s still unclear if her husband will be allowed to come to Canada.
The last repatriation flight for around 250 Canadians still stranded in Peru is scheduled for Friday, June 19. All flights need special permission from the government of Peru, which closed its international airport in March.
Craig was working for a women’s rights defence group with the Canadian NGO CUSO International, partially financed by Global Affairs Canada.
She was not supposed to come back to Canada for at least another year, but her contract was terminated because of the pandemic. Her husband also lost his job with an advertising company.
