From Swedish Aftonbladet today:

https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/rA ... an-aka-hem

Several Swedes have been stranded in Cambodia since the country closed its borders in March.

One of them is Andreas Röhlander, 32, who is stuck in the country indefinitely.

- The worst thing is the uncertainty, you start to feel abandoned now, says Andreas.

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The trip to Cambodia would be a magical holiday for Andreas Röhlander and his Australian girlfriend Bec Gregory-Pahlow, 30, before the two would move to Sweden together.
- We came here in February and were going to travel around a bit and had a return trip booked to Stockholm on April 16, Andreas says when Aftonbladet reaches him via Messenger.
Bec Gregory-Pahlow, 30, and Swedish Andreas Röhlander, 33, have been stuck in Cambodia since the country closed its borders in March.
PHOTO: PRIVATE
Bec Gregory-Pahlow, 30, and Swedish Andreas Röhlander, 33, have been stuck in Cambodia since the country closed its borders in March.
Then came the corona pandemic and the couple - as well as the whole world - saw their plans overturned. Without warning, the Cambodian government decided at the end of March to close the country's borders.
- It came from nowhere. We did not have time to get tickets with the last flights that went, they were fully booked.

The flights are crowded
Since then, the couple has been stuck in the country.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has received the message that there are flights and that they can get home on their own. And those who do a quick googling can certainly find airline tickets, but in practice they can not be bought or are unsafe, says Andreas:
- If you call the airlines, they either say that there are no tickets, that the flights are overcrowded or that they can not guarantee that you will be let into a country to get on with connecting flights.
- The situation is unpredictable: borders can be opened and closed in a short time and rules about who is admitted or not are uncertain.
The travel fund is over and now Andreas Röhlander and Bec Gregory-Pahlow live on money that their families lend them.
PHOTO: PRIVATE
The travel fund is over and now Andreas Röhlander and Bec Gregory-Pahlow live on money that their families lend them.
The trip to Cambodia would be a romantic holiday trip for the couple before moving to Sweden.
PHOTO: PRIVATE
The trip to Cambodia would be a romantic holiday trip for the couple before moving to Sweden.
Must come home to get medicine
How it can go for those who dare to take a chance and buy a plane ticket can be illustrated with what happened to an acquaintance of Andreas.
- He bought a plane ticket and came all the way to Frankfurt. But he was not allowed in there and had to buy a ticket back to Cambodia again for 30,000 kronor.
Andreas and his girlfriend know several other Swedes who are stranded in the city of Kampot. And for many, the situation is worse than for Andreas and Bec. Some are seriously ill and need to come home to Sweden to get their medication.
- One here is ill with cancer, one has carbon and another has diabetes. Their medicines are starting to run out and now they get help from relatives who send medicines to them, says Andreas.
Crowded at the airport in the capital Phnom Penh on April 3 this year.
PHOTO: HENG SINITH / AP
Crowded at the airport in the capital Phnom Penh on April 3 this year.
Got tropical virus
Andreas and Bec are also ill. She is lying with a broken leg after a traffic accident. He is recovering from a tropical virus reminiscent of dengue fever: chikungunya. He has been ill with a fever of 40 degrees, had pain in the joints and in the throat.

- I'm starting to get better and probably only have a 38 degree fever now, but I do not get any food in me other than fluid replacement and some yogurt, he says.
Food, housing and the couple's unforeseen hospital bills cost a lot. In addition, their travel insurance has expired because they did not plan to stay that long.
Asks the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for help
Now they live on money that their families lend them. The couple has plane tickets home in October, but since several previous bookings have been canceled or postponed, it is difficult to know if the trip will really be canceled.
Andreas would like the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to set up a flight for which the stranded Swedes could buy a ticket to be guaranteed to get home.
- For the sake of finances, we must come home soon, our families can not help us for any length of time. The worst thing is the uncertainty, that we do not know when and how to get home. You long for the family and the security at home.
During the pandemic, tens of thousands of Swedes have been stranded around the world. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has assisted in cases where it has been deemed impossible to get home on your own machine, including from Iran, Peru and Vietnam. Then by collaborating with airlines that want to fly the route.
Aftonbladet has applied to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ask questions about the situation of the Swedes stranded in Cambodia. They will return with answers, the press service announces.

Reading the story above made me burst into tears.

Snowflakes shouldn't travel the world looking for adventure, but stay home.

Hundreds of millions have been effected by this, and so have they. Deal with it.

theKid wrote:I’m not buying it.

It’s been 5 months! While it may have been difficult to get flights out in April and May, lately there have been flights pretty much daily to Seoul and Taipei from which they could get connections home.
You can see hundreds of “stuck” tourists hanging out in Kampot bars with not a worry in the world. Feel sorry for the paying relatives who believe in those sob stories.

EVA just cancelled the flight from Taipei to Phnom Penh. Again.

Flight are not always guaranteed in this time of virus.