Stephanie Carvaledo, her two-year-old girl and some 200 other Colombians camped out in Brazil's busiest international airport a few days ago, in a miserable attempt to return home.
More than two months after the general isolation and closure decisions caused by the Coronavirus around the world, most countries are gradually reopening their facilities. However, Latin America remains largely isolated due to travel restrictions across the region.
Colombia suspended all its international flights until at least August 31, which prevented the return of its children by air. It also stopped river cruises and closed land crossings with neighboring countries, including Brazil.
Carvaledo said that she and her daughter Maria Jose spent about two weeks at Guarulhos International Airport on the outskirts of São Paulo, the city that had had the lion's share in Corona cases so far.
Carvaledo, 24, and others rely on food donations, as well as her role in using a humble kitchen outside the airport.
The stranded are demanding humanitarian trips. However, the Colombian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that there were no new flights from Brazil before next week.
Three trips of this kind have been organized since late April, returning 346 people to Colombia.
Although she bears a description of "humanitarian," Colombians have to pay $ 350 for the trip, an amount that Carvaledo and many others do not have at the airport. Their appeal without return has not been heard yet.
"Under the current regulations, this requirement is not possible," the Colombian Consulate in Sao Paulo said in a statement.