Sixty-five Hong Kong residents will take a chartered flight arranged by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government out of Lima to London, then a regular connecting flight with secured bookings from London to Hong Kong.

The chartered flight taking Hong Kong residents out of Peru is scheduled to leave Lima for London at 4pm on April 3 local time (5am on April 4, Hong Kong time).

Up until this point, the Immigration Department has received 98 assistance requests from Hong Kong residents stranded in Peru, among whom 13 have left through other arrangements.

At present, 65 people have indicated they would take the chartered flight arranged by the Hong Kong SAR Government from Lima to Hong Kong via London. The cost will be borne by the passengers.

Those remaining in Peru have chosen not to take the chartered flight as a matter of personal preference or because they are under quarantine.

Hong Kong residents in different locations in Peru, depending on the distance between their current location and Lima, will have to take a domestic flight or other long-haul land transport to go to Lima.

As Peru is in a state of national emergency, there are strict restrictions on all land and air traffic and all travel must be approved by the Peruvian authorities.

With the full assistance of the Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Chinese Embassy in the Republic of Peru, the Hong Kong SAR Government has arranged for an international chartered flight out of Peru, a domestic chartered flight to take 29 Hong Kong residents in Cusco to Lima, and assisted those in other locations to get to Lima by land transport through local travel agencies.

The Hong Kong SAR Government has made available masks for each Hong Kong resident to use during their flights.

The Hong Kong residents returning from Peru, upon their arrival at Hong Kong International Airport, will proceed to the Centre for Health Protection's testing centre at the AsiaWorld-Expo for mandatory COVID-19 testing.

If the test result is negative, they may go home or to a designated place to continue completion of the 14-day compulsory quarantine.

The Chinese Embassy in Peru has been co-ordinating with the Peruvian authorities in issuing travel certificates and permits to the Hong Kong residents concerned to ensure they can reach Lima Airport smoothly.

The chartered flights are mainly arranged for Hong Kong residents. All the residents who have informed the Immigration Department of their wish to take the chartered flights have been allocated a seat.

To ensure sufficient use of resources and for mutual co-operation and benefit, the Hong Kong SAR Government has accepted requests for assistance from other governments to allow their residents to take the remaining seats on the chartered flights.

According to current estimates, four Malaysian residents will take the chartered flight from Cusco to Lima, while six Malaysian residents and five British residents will take the chartered flight from Lima to London.

They will arrange their own itinerary upon arrival in London. The cost of taking the chartered flights is also on a user-pays basis.

The cost of taking the Lima to London chartered flight followed by an ordinary connecting flight to Hong Kong is $30,000; while the Cusco to Lima flight costs $5,600.

Residents of other countries will pay the same amount for taking the chartered flights.