Caribbean: Coronavirus

(asked on 15th May 2020) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many people are registered with his Department as awaiting repatriation from the West Indies as a result of the covid-19 pandemic.


Answered by
Wendy Morton Portrait
Wendy Morton
This question was answered on 20th May 2020

The welfare of British nationals remains our top priority, and we remain committed to ensuring that British travellers around the globe are able to return home. The UK Government is working closely with airlines, local authorities and governments in the Caribbean region to help British travellers return to the UK as part of the plan announced by the Foreign Secretary on 30 March - with up to £75 million available for special charter flights from priority countries, focused on helping the most vulnerable travellers. Foreign and Commonwealth Office staff have worked round the clock to bring back more than 300 people from Jamaica and Guyana on charter flights on 8 May. We have supported over 11,000 people to return home from the Caribbean via commercial means, and Post's priority remains to continue providing advice and assistance to British nationals in-country.

We are aware that there are British travellers remaining overseas in the Caribbean region and our effort is focused on supporting their return as quickly and safely as possible. British travellers wishing to return to the UK have been actively encouraged to register with their nearest High Commission or Embassy as well as to check travel advice for updates regularly. https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice. It is difficult to be precise about the numbers because there have been instances of multiple registrations by the same individual, people not reporting their return to the UK via other means, and British Nationals resident overseas registering for flights even though many were not eligible.

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