Stranded holidaymakers in dark over rescue flights from Peru
BRITONS stranded in Peru said last night that they were being left in the dark about possible evacuations, despite the Foreign Office announcing it was chartering flights to bring them home.
The FCO said it would begin flying more Britons out of Lima after the first flight took off Thursday, with internal transfers to be arranged from Cusco, where several Britons are trapped.
Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, said last night: “The Foreign Office has chartered three more flights for British travellers in Peru – as well as domestic flights to help those in Cusco. We continue to work around the clock to help British travellers struggling to get back to the UK.”
Foreign Office sources confirmed that NHS workers had been added to the priority list. NHS workers were not on the priority list for flights from Wuhan. It comes as the Government moved to repatriate as many stranded doctors and nurses as possible.
Sarah Baxter, 42, stuck in Cusco, was not aware of the flights until she was told by The Daily Telegraph. No one on a Whatsapp group for stranded Britons had been informed, she said. “To be honest, this is the way of things – information, which has been infrequent, goes online first or via Twitter before we get emails,” she added.
Meanwhile, in the Philippines, the situation for hundreds of trapped Britons became more precarious after emergency “sweeper” flights connecting outlying islands to Manila’s international airport were cut off.
Isabel Brickle and other British tourists said they had had no clear advice or exit plan from the UK embassy.
Newlywed Ms Brickle, who is on the island of Cebu with husband Joe, is hunkered down in a remote hotel with three more British travellers, living on rations as food runs low. Six more Britons are trying to reach the hotel from other side of the island. She said she was aghast to be advised to make her way to the local airport despite the flight ban and reports of destitute tourists forced to sleep on the ground.
Those who have made it to Manila have found themselves stranded at the airport, unable to afford exorbitant prices for rare flights, or booking seats that are cancelled with no refunds.
“Nobody in their right mind would get on a flight to Manila. Manila is locked down and that’s where the virus is most centralised,” she said.
Daniel Pruce, the UK ambassador to the Philippines, said Britons faced a “very difficult and distressing time” and the embassy was doing all it could.