I had travelled to the US for work earlier in the year. On March 20, I was to board a flight from New York to Dubai, on my way to Lahore. I had been issued my boarding card; my luggage was checked in – I was ready to go home. When I went to board my flight at 10:30pm, officials of the Emirates Airlines told me I could not board because they had received instructions from the Pakistani government to allow boarding to only passengers carrying a coronavirus test result. The tests weren’t being conducted, so how could passengers provide results?

Eventually the flight took off without me. First, they made the test mandatory then they closed the airspace. Since then I have been stranded in New York. It’s been almost a month now. My 14-year-old daughter, my house – everything is in Lahore. We are being told special flights will carry stranded Pakistanis home. But so far nothing has materialised. I remain stuck here, all alone.

I hope the Pakistani government takes our pleas seriously. They should immediately repatriate at least the Pakistanis who don’t live here, who have no relatives here and whose entire lives are in Pakistan. Surviving here is very difficult.

The Pakistan consul general has been very helpful and supportive. But for how long can we just sit around?

My hope is that a special flight for those stranded in the US will soon make its way here. That truly is my only hope. Other than that there is little I can make sense of right now.