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, pursuant to the Answer of 11 May 2020 to Question 43580 on South Asia: Coronavirus, how many UK nationals who registered an interest by 19 April 2020 to return from (a) India, (b) Pakistan and (c) Bangladesh were categorised as vulnerable; and if he will make a statement.


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

Repatriating British travellers from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh is a priority for the UK Government and we have been working closely with the government of each country and airlines to ensure British travellers can return home. 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. Over 1,600 British travellers have been repatriated from Bangladesh. These have carried almost all of those who registered, are eligible, and took up the option of a flight when given the chance to do so. The small numbers who are unable to travel are being looked after by our consular teams in region.

We reserve as many seats as possible on all flights for the most vulnerable British nationals - these are our top priority. 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 people registering for flights even though they were not eligible.

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