South Asia: Coronavirus

(asked on 18th May 2020) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the covid-19 pandemic, how many UK nationals registered an interest with his Department by 19 April 2020 to return to the UK from (a) India, (b) Pakistan and (c) Bangladesh; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
Nigel Adams Portrait
Nigel Adams
This question was answered on 2nd June 2020

Helping British travellers who need and want to return to the UK is one of the Government's highest priorities. Since the outbreak in Wuhan, we estimate that over 1.3 million people have returned to the UK via commercial routes globally - the majority supported by our work to keep vital routes open. Additionally we have brought home over 32,000 people on 155 flights organised by the Foreign Office from 29 countries and territories. The number of British travellers that may still require support to return home across the globe is now in the low tens of thousands. It is difficult to be more precise because there have been instances of multiple registrations by the same individual, people not reporting their return to the UK via other means, and long term residents registering for flights even though they were not eligible.

Repatriating British travellers from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh is a priority for the UK Government and we have been working closely with both airlines and the governments of each of those countries to ensure British travellers can return home. We have worked with international allies to lobby authorities to keep commercial air routes open and work together to return travellers globally. Where commercial flights have not been available, the UK Government has organised charter flights. As of 19 May we have arranged 64 charter flights from India and 21 from Pakistan which have repatriated more than 19,000 British travellers in total. 1,600 British travellers have been repatriated from Bangladesh.

Our High Commissions are providing consular assistance to those who need it, including the most vulnerable, and are continuing to provide regular updates on social media. We encourage British travellers to subscribe to our travel service updates: https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice.

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