Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his counterparts in (a) Philippines, (b) Turkey and (c) New Zealand on facilitating the repatriation of UK nationals from those countries.

The UK is grateful for the continued support of our international partners. Their assistance in flying our citizens home and keeping flight routes running by keeping key transit hubs open to air traffic, are invaluable to our efforts to repatriate British nationals.

We are in regular contact with the Government of the Philippines on the repatriation of British nationals. This engagement has been critical to our efforts to repatriate approximately 1100 British Nationals from the Philippines, including via two UK charter flights. The Foreign Secretary spoke to Foreign Minister Locsin on 31 March. I also spoke to Foreign Minister Locsin on 26 April to finalise planning for the second UK charter flight to bring British nationals home. We are supporting all remaining BNs with information on commercial flights and keeping the option of a third charter flight under review.

We have regular discussions with the Turkish authorities on these issues, both through our Embassy in Turkey and through Ministerial contact. The Minister for the European Neighbourhood and Americas, most recently discussed the repatriation of British nationals with her Turkish counterpart on 21 April. We are working hard with Turkey to ensure that British nationals in Turkey can return to the UK using the remaining commercial flights as soon as possible.

The Foreign Secretary spoke to New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Winston Peters, on 30 April. The Foreign Secretary thanked him for New Zealand's support in facilitating the five charter flights which have returned over 1500 British nationals to the UK and asked for his continued support for a further three charter flights scheduled to begin on 11 May.