Thomas Cook victims held hostage by gun-wielding Cuban guards
‘The hotel manager would not let cabs in’
THE British ambassador to Cuba was forced to intervene after guntoting security guards locked dozens of Thomas Cook holidaymakers in their hotels and demanded thousands of pounds.
Travellers and cabin crew broke down in tears as guards ‘held them hostage’ in their hotels at a resort near Holguin.
The order to keep them hostage came from the very top of the Cuban government, sources said.
Many were locked in their rooms and some forced to sleep in corridors. Desperate pleas for help were sent to relatives in the UK, although many had no WiFi or phone reception.
The drama ignited because the authorities in the communist dictatorship refused to recognise the Civil Aviation Authority’s Atol protection scheme, which covers payments if a firm goes under.
Hoteliers on the Caribbean island, where almost 3,000 tourists were stranded when Thomas Cook went under, claimed they were owned ‘significant sums’ by the travel firm, and demanded customers pay them directly.
Tensions at Holguin were only defused when Antony Stokes, the British ambassador to Cuba, intervened to offer assurances to hoteliers.
Holidaymakers and cabin crew arrived safely back at london Gatwick Airport yesterday afternoon on an Airbus A330 repatriation flight chartered from Portuguese airline Hi Fly.
Dr Stokes tweeted: ‘Very grateful for patience of all affected in distressing circumstances.’ Despite his efforts, some holidaymakers said they were still forced to pay up to £2,700 before being allowed to leave.
Graham loughran, 52, of Rainham in Essex, became the de facto leader of 73 British guests at the Playa Pesquero hotel in Holguin.
Mr loughran, an accountant, said: ‘The staff started aggressively saying, “you need to pay, you need to pay”. There’s no doubt it was a hostage situation. The hotel manager stopped letting cabs in.
‘They wouldn’t do anything without the government’s permission. I was in constant communication with the Civil Aviation Authority and the British Embassy who sent representatives to the hotel.’ Another of the travellers held to ransom was Sue Petrow, who told the BBC before being allowed to leave: ‘I’d already had to pay a large medical bill while in Cuba for my husband.
‘My husband is diabetic. He has had three heart attacks.’
Dame Deirdre Hutton, the chairman of the CAA, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday that the issue was ‘sorted out by the ambassador overnight’.
She said the CAA had issued guarantees for payment to 3,000 hotels around the world, and had already started making the first payments. Thomas Cook owes hotels a total of £338million. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps yesterday described the ordeals of holidaymakers in Cuba as an ‘appalling situation’.
A Foreign Office spokesman said last night: ‘The Government and CAA are working around the clock to support all those affected.’
Holidaymakers are being targeted by fraudsters offering fake Thomas Cook refunds, police have warned. The crooks try to obtain their bank details by pretending to be representatives of the tour operator, while others claim that they are from customers’ banks.