Lesley relieved to escape from Peru lockdown
GREYSTONES WOMAN BACK HOME AFTER GETTING SEAT ON CHARTERED FLIGHT
LESLEY Ann Devereux (38) from Greystones, has expressed her gratitude to the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, British Government and Irish Embassy in Peru for getting her and many others home through closed borders.
She arrived home on Sunday afternoon a mammoth journey and days of worry. ‘It was a huge sense of relief touching down on Irish soil,’ said Lesley Ann.
She took a 20-hour bus journey to Lima to catch a specially chartered British Airway flight from a military base to London. The final leg of the journey was with Aer Lingus to Dublin.
The GOAL worker had decided to join her Peruvian husband in his home country before starting a new post with the charity at its Dun
Laoghaire HQ.
The couple were due to fly home on March 31 but a week after she arrived, Peruvians and foreigners alike were given 28 hours to get to their home cities or leave the country.
Due to the logistics involved, this proved impossible and they watched as all commercial flights were cancelled and the border closed.
Lesley Ann and her husband were locked down in a small hostel in the tourist city Cuzco with around 12 other people. ‘It was surreal,’ she said. ‘Military police were controlling the quarantine. The city was shut down.’
Tourists from Ireland and the UK joined forces to campaign for help to get home. Their respective governments stepped in negotiate their repatriation, resulting in a very relieved Lesley Ann’s arrival home.
LESLEY Ann Devereux (38) from Greystones, has arrived home safely following repatriation efforts to get her and other Irish and UK citizens out of Peru.
She had taken a 20-hour bus journey to Lima, flown from a Peruvian military base to London, and landed in Dublin on Sunday afternoon. Her relieved parents Rosemary and Dermot Devereaux had stocked her home with supplies ahead of her arrival.
Lesley Ann works for GOAL and has been based in Ethiopia for the past two and a half years. She is due to start a new job based in the charity’s Dun Laoghaire headquarters this month.
Her husband is from Peru and had been there visiting his family since February. She joined him at the start of March for a holiday and they were both due home on March 31 but all commercial flights were cancelled and the border closed. ‘I hadn’t been back here in 12 years. When I booked my flight there were no cases of coronavirus in Peru, and when I flew there was only 1,’ she said.
A week after she arrived, Peruvians and foreigners alike were given 28 hours to get to their home cities or leave the country. This was impossible for most people. Most tourists are either a flight or a two-day bus journey from Lima for flights. Lesley Ann and her husband were locked down in a small hostel in the tourist city Cuzco with around 12 other people. ‘It was surreal,’ she said. ‘Military police were controlling the quarantine’.
All borders were closed, and internal movement completely restricted. ‘We were supposed to stay in our rooms and the police were inspecting tourist accommodations to make sure people were respecting social distancing inside and had masks on,’ said Lesley Ann.
She was one of 135 Irish people in Peru. ‘Our biggest fear was that someone in our hostel got the virus and we would end up quarantined for months and miss all chance of repatriation,’ said Lesley Ann. ‘We were trying to lobby the Irish government to repatriate us and work at a political level to get us out,’ she said. They joined forces with UK citizens also trying to get home.
The Department of Foreign Affairs, the Irish Embassy and the UK government managed to get people from the provincial towns to Lima and approval for repatriation flights. The UK government deployed British soldiers to coordinate operations at a military air base in Lima, and chartered a BA flight to London where all staff on board had volunteered. The Irish people were then flown by Aer Lingus to Dublin. ‘It was a huge sense of relief touching down on Irish soil!’ said Lesley Ann.