Mexico yesterday chartered a plane to pick up its nationals in China, which has put 70 Mexicans into quarantine over fear of swine flu, Mexico’s foreign ministry said.
The aircraft would arrive in Beijing and repatriate the Mexicans, an official from the ministry said.
“In a few hours a plane will leave for Beijing to pick up our nationals who are in China and who want to come back to Mexico,” said the official, who declined to be identified.
It was not immediately clear whether those Mexicans to be collected included the 70 in quarantine.
Asked about that, the foreign ministry official said only that the repatriation “is directed at all the Mexicans who want to return to Mexico.”
The Mexican government has accused China of singling out Mexicans for forced isolation in hotels despite them showing no symptoms of the virus.
China has rejected the charge, saying it was not discriminating against Mexicans.
“The relevant measures are not directed at Mexican citizens and are not discriminatory,” foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭) said in a statement posted on the ministry’s Web site.
The statement came a day after Mexican diplomats complained bitterly to China, saying their countrymen had been placed under a seven-day quarantine despite showing no signs of swine flu.
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