South Asia: Coronavirus

(asked on 18th May 2020) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his oral contribution of 11 May 2020, Official Report, column 12 on repatriation, how many of the 30,000 British nationals who returned on the 141 flights chartered from 27 countries and territories were from (a) India, (b) Pakistan and (c) Bangladesh; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
Nigel Adams Portrait
Nigel Adams
This question was answered on 2nd June 2020

Helping British travellers who need and want to return to the UK is one of the Government's highest priorities. Since the outbreak in Wuhan, we estimate that over 1.3 million people have returned to the UK via commercial routes - the majority supported by our work to keep vital routes open. As of 19 May, we have brought back over 32,000 people on 155 flights organised by the Foreign Office from 29 countries and territories.

Repatriating British travellers from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh is a priority for the UK Government and we have been working closely with both airlines and the governments of each of those countries to ensure British travellers can return home. We have worked with international allies to lobby authorities to keep commercial air routes open and work together to return travellers globally.

As of 19 May we have arranged 64 charter flights from India and 21 from Pakistan which have repatriated more than 19,000 British travellers. Over 1,600 British travellers have been repatriated from Bangladesh.

Reticulating Splines