Stranded Britons claim French flights ‘refused to take UK refugees’
DISTRESSED British holidaymakers yesterday said they had been left to starve on a hurricane-hit island while French evacuation planes flew out half empty because they had no permission to take “refugees”.
Anger was growing over the UK Government’s “disgraceful” response to the disaster, after families said there had been no information and no help despite the growing lawlessness and dwindling food and water supplies.
Ross and Lesley Mcewan, both in their early 60s, said they had queued up at the airport every day as instructed by the authorities on St Maarten, but after 14 hours they were told that “nobody wants to take us”.
The couple, from Cambourne in Cambridgeshire, had been on holiday in the Dutch part of island, the northern half of which is the French territory St Martin.
Commercial flights have been unable to land but there was a glimmer of hope on Sunday when they were told that there would be space for them on a French evacuation flight. However, the couple sent a message to their daughter, Kirsty Shephard, to say: “French flew with three-quarter-empty plane because they couldn’t get permission for ‘refugees’. Back to resort.”
Amy Brown, 36, an HR manager and mother of two from Burghfield in Berkshire, is also trapped on St Maarten.
Her father, Geoffrey Scott-baker, said: “They are just trying to survive. They are being told to go to the airport each day but the Dutch and the French are just looking after their own; if you have got the wrong passport then you don’t fly.”
Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, told the BBC’S Today programme that the criticisms were “completely unjustified”.
He said: “In St Maarten, which is Dutch let’s not forget, we have been evacuating people according to their medical need and some British nationals actually have been evacuated. We are in constant contact with the Dutch or the French.”
A French embassy spokesman denied that French rescue planes had refused to take British holidaymakers, adding that the most vulnerable were evacuated first.
A spokesman said: “All of the other tourists are now progressively being transferred.” His comments came as aides of Emmanuel Macron, the French president, feared he would face a hostile reception when he visits the devastated French Caribbean islands today.
Criticism has been fuelled by widespread looting in St Martin, where 95 per cent of homes have been damaged or destroyed.