Government pays for return flights from Japan
Every Swiss who last weekend flew back from the devastation in Japan will have their plane ticket paid for by the foreign ministry.
The ministry, which has an annual budget of SFr400,000 ($442,000) for such evacuations, reserved all available seats on Swiss International Air Lines flights from Japan on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The 65 Swiss who took advantage of the evacuation tickets would not have to pay for them, the ministry confirmed on Thursday.
The budget also went towards evacuations from Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. However, expatriates in Japan were less willing to return home than the foreign ministry expected – many of the reserved seats remained empty.
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