Boris arrives in Caribbean as jail break adds to woes
Marines used to protect Governor as 100 ‘serious’ prisoners escape in wake of hurricane on BVI
BORIS JOHNSON arrived in the Caribbean last night amid criticism over the Government’s slow response to the aftermath of Hurricane Irma.
The Foreign Secretary was set to visit the British Virgin Islands and the British territory of Anguilla which, between them, lost nine people to the storm.
His visit came as it emerged that around 100 “very serious” prisoners escaped from jail on the British Virgin Islands in the wake of the hurricane.
The jail break had posed a “serious threat of the complete breakdown of law and order” in the overseas territory, Foreign Minister Sir Alan Duncan told MPS.
He said Marines from a British warship, RFA Mounts Bay, had been used to “protect the Governor and everything else”.
Sir Alan said: “We have maintained and kept law and order on the British Virgin Islands, which at one point could have dramatically threatened the already unfortunate plight of those who had been hit by the hurricane.”
One resident said the prison had been blown open by the storm, and people had armed themselves for protection.
According to leaked Cabinet notes, efforts are now being made to transfer the prisoners to St Lucia.
Speaking on board a Virgin Atlantic flight as he headed to the British territories, Mr Johnson said: “The military presence is really ratcheting up now.
“Yesterday there were about 700 troops in the region that has now gone up to 1,000. It will go up to 1,250 in the course of the next few days.”
“What they’re seeing is an unprecedented UK response, but I want to stress it is not just for the short term, we are going to be there for the long term as well,” he added.
A total of 997 British military person- nel are now in the Caribbean helping with the relief effort. Some 47 British police officers have also arrived in the British Virgin Islands.
Priti Patel, Secretary of State for International Development, said the UK was working at “full throttle”.
She added: “We have over 40 tonnes of aid in the region, and more aid is arriving every day.” HMS Ocean, Britain’s biggest warship in service, should be there within 10 days.
But Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, criticised the government’s response as “too little and too late”. She said it was “alarming” that a week had passed and the government was “still talking about the potential evacuation of British citizens”.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, who had also faced criticism over his government’s response, arrived in Guadeloupe yesterday.
He said France had set up “one of the biggest airlifts since the Second World War” and promised a “rebirth”.
Mr Macron added: “Now is not the time for controversy. Returning life to normal is the absolute priority.”
King Willem-alexander, who was visiting Dutch territories, said: “I’ve seen proper war as well as natural disasters before, but I’ve never seen anything like this. Everywhere you look there’s devastation.”
US President Donald Trump plans to visit the US Virgin Islands in about a week.
More than 500,000 Britons have
‘The military presence is really ratcheting up now. I want to stress it is not just for the short term, we are going to be there for the long term as well.’
been in the path of Hurricane Irma, many of them in Florida.
Worst affected there were the Florida Keys, an island chain normally home to 70,000 people.
Irma destroyed 25 per cent of the houses in the Keys, and damaged 60 per cent, US government disaster chief Brock Long said.
He added: “Basically every house in the Keys has been impacted some way or another.”
There were calls to evacuate some of the 10,000 people who stayed in the area despite mandatory evacuation orders. At the other end of the state 356 people were rescued from unprecedented flooding in Jacksonville.
More than half of Florida remained without power yesterday, and some areas were warned restoration could take weeks. Some 30,000 workers from outside the state have been drafted in to help get power back up.
There were traffic jams as people returned to their homes.
The death toll in US was at least 11, including two in Georgia and one in South Carolina.