Roman Trofimov wrote on his Facebook page: "For your information, who wanted to meet me in the airport, unfortunately, I did not make it the Estonian flight in Amsterdam," ERR (link in Estonian) reports.

The next flight from Amsterdam to Tallinn flies out on Thursday.

Trofimov departed from Estonia to the Philippines on March 12, the day the government announced the emergency situation in response to the outbreak of COVID-19. An emergency situation was similarly announced in the Philippines on March 15, but Trofimov says he was not aware of this, flying in as the borders closed. He stayed in the airport for three months.

The Philippines Bureau of Immigration denied Trofimov entry to the country. Representatives of airliner AirAsia, who had taken him onto the island, took his non-citizen alien's passport, promising to return him to his home country. The airliner has not been running flights of any kind to Estonia however and stopped operating due to the emergency situation altogether.

On Monday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Trofimov had recently accepted the offer from the authority to return to Estonia. The ministry began organizing a return flight for him.

Tiina Nirk, Head of the Consular Department of the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told ERR's Russian-language "Aktuaalne kaamera" on Monday that Trofimov could return to Estonia on Wednesday if he accepted the ministry's proposal.

Nirk said: "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is working together with Estravel. We have considered different options on how to get Trofimov back to Estonia. He has the opportunity to return back with two transfers in The Netherlands. We have booked the flight tickets for him."

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