N Cyprus to airlift citizens from London

NORTHERN Cyprus is planning to rescue thousands of its citizens from the UK to the safety of a region that has not recorded a new Covid-19 positive test for 57 days, its prime minister has told The Sunday Telegraph.

The territory, recognised as a country only by Turkey, has watched in horror and sadness as about 100 Northern Cypriots died in the UK, most of them in London, during the pandemic. In contrast, the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) with a population of about 350,000, has officially recorded 108 cases – about a third of them German tourists – and a total of four deaths, two of them Germans and a third a visitor from Turkey.

In an interview with The Telegraph, its prime minister, Ersin Tatar, said: “We have had about 100 Turkish Cypriots dying in England. That is very horrifying news. We are very sad for the people who have lost their lives. Now we are trying to bring some of them back to Cyprus. Their families want them to be brought back here.”

The rescue operation threatens to humiliate the UK, which has the worst Covid-19 death toll in Europe.

Northern Cyprus’s last death was almost three months ago, and its last patient was discharged from hospital on May 11.

Mr Tatar, who was educated at a private school in east London before graduating from Cambridge University, ordered a complete lockdown in Northern Cyprus within days of the first reported case – a tourist who was taken to hospital on March 9.

Chartered flights were halted immediately and by March 14 schools had been shut, all but essential shops closed and a 14-day quarantine introduced for visitors. The land border with Cyprus in the south was also closed.

Mr Tatar said more than 10,000 Britons had homes on the island and that about 1,000 were desperate to return.