Indonesian Foreign Ministry participates in joint efforts to evacuate foreigners

Jakarta (Antaranews Bali) - Indonesia`s Foreign Ministry participated in collective efforts to evacuate foreigners from Gili Trawangan, Gili Air, and Gili Meno tourist areas after a magnitude-7 earthquake hit Lombok Island in West Nusa Tenggara Province on Sunday evening.

The foreign ministry`s team members collaborated with the National Search and Rescue Agency`s workers and local residents to evacuate at least 350 holidaymakers, of which 90 percent were foreign nationals, the ministry noted in a statement made available to Antara here on Tuesday.

Over 1,800 of the two thousand foreign tourists forecast to stay in the three Gili Islands had been evacuated, the ministry revealed.

The foreign ministry has received at least 70 requests for evacuating foreign nationals over the past two days from foreign representative offices in Indonesia. The requests were sent by the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Finland, Spain, Japan, and Portugal, among others.

It has also provided foreign visitors helpdesk`s phone number +62 878-6412-4151 to the relatives of tourists from Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Japan, France, Greek, the Netherlands, Oman, and Kuwait.

The Indonesian government has confirmed that seven thousand foreign tourists were evacuated from the tourist areas of Gili Trawangan, Gili Air, and Gili Meno.

Most evacuees would have transited in the Indonesian resort island of Bali, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Wiranto stated.

The government has provided vessels, passenger buses, and additional flights to enable them to depart from the quake-hit island, he noted, adding that equal and fair treatment was given to both domestic and foreign tourists.

Tourists evacuated from the Bangsal Seaport will be transported to Bali Island, while those looking to catch flights were taken to the Lombok Praya International Airport, he stated.

Tens of Damri buses were seen serving the evacuees keen on travelling to the airport and Mataram free of charge.

The Indonesian Tourism Ministry had earlier provided different modes of transport to help evacuate some one thousand tourists and local residents out of Gili Isles after the strong quake.

The Tourism Ministry had also coordinated with related authorities and those from the disaster mitigation agency to give valid information to tourists, as the spread of fake news on tsunami on the internet had triggered panic among those in Gili Isles.

"In fact, the early tsunami warning had officially been revoked on Sunday evening," Tourism Minister Arief Yahya stated.

The strong-intensity quake had reportedly killed at least 105 people and caused injuries to 209 people. It also damaged thousands of houses and forced tens of thousands of local residents to take refuge. (WDY)