Amidst the COVID-19 outbreak several visitors to Barbados have indicated that they are happy to leave Bridgetown and head back to their homes across Europe.
On Thursday, some 209 people departed the Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA) on the final of two repatriation flights to Germany from the Caribbean. The first flight was on Wednesday.
The flight, which was organized by the German government with the support of the Government of Barbados and the European Union (EU), consisted of a number of Germans, other EU and UK nationals, and one US citizen.
The 209 EU nationals today consisted of 133 individuals who were transported from several Eastern Caribbean states to Bridgetown by LIAT to meet the 76 who were in Barbados. Twenty-nine came from Antigua and Barbuda, 46 from Grenada, 12 from St Lucia, 12 from St Vincent and the Grenadines, 14 from Anguilla and 20 from Dominica.
In total, more than 500 individuals were transported over the two days.
Two hundred and nine EU nationals departed the Grantley Adams International Airport today.
When a Barbados TODAY team caught up with some of the EU citizens at the GAIA before they boarded their flights, most of them said they were disappointed that they did not get the opportunity to do what they wanted.
However, they all gave kudos to the authorities for the measures implemented, with the exception of the short notice for the implementation of the curfew.
Barbadian-born Johnathon Mayers is one of the passengers returning to his home in Germany with his family – five adults and two children.
His trip was planned for four weeks and they ended up spending six weeks due to the disruption in flights as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mayers told Barbados TODAY he had “a lot of stress” on this trip that he would not normally have on a vacation.
“It is actually the first time we are happy to leave Barbados to get home to Hamburg and back to work and everything,” said Mayers.
“We are glad that we can go now because we have been waiting for two weeks after our planned flight was cancelled one day before. So we are happy now that we are assured we can get home,” he said.
He recalled the first two weeks of his holiday being “perfect” but things started to fall apart during the final two weeks.
“So the last week of our planned holiday was real stress, and then of course one day before the flight was cancelled and we knew no other flights were coming, so we had to contact the consulate to tell them we are trapped and we need to get back home and that is how that started off,” he recalled.
However, he believed the measures in place in Barbados were “very good”, but said he was disappointed with the notice given for the curfew.
Antony Stockhausen who resides in Cologne, Germany said this was his first vacation to the region with his wife, and a part of their plan was to visit several Eastern Caribbean islands on a cruise. However, that did not happen due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
“We were here to go on a sailing trip one week and to have a few days before that and after that, but now we are here five weeks, and one and a half days on the ship,” he recalled.
“We took a hotel here because we wanted to stay a little bit longer than three or five days,” he said.
Stockhausen said he was unaware of the cancellation of flights to Germany and by that time, the hotel he was staying at was closing and so he was forced to find another.
With restaurants closed and food running low, Stockhausen said he and his wife had to depend on the good deeds of the hotel manager. He said he was very pleased with the friendliness, helpfulness and politeness of the people with whom he came into contact.
“What was really nice we had the weather and the water, 27 degrees. For us it was very exciting. But we didn’t see much of the island because we had no car the first days when we could go around, and the last ten days everything was closed,” he said, adding that he would have to think about whether he would return to Barbados any time soon after the pandemic.
Paul Comissiong, brother of Barbados’ Ambassador to CARICOM David Comissiong, said he was returning to Italy with his wife, after spending time in Barbados since December.
He and his wife planned to leave Barbados on March 4 to return home, but the COVID-19 pandemic caused a delay.
“If we stay here any longer then it is just a longer time before we get our life back in order,” said Comissiong, indicating that he had a “great” vacation which was split between family and house chores.
He said he believed Barbados was doing a “terrific job” in containing the virus.
Honorary Consul of Germany to Barbados Andreas Kusay told Barbados TODAY it was difficult getting the logistics in place, but he was satisfied that the process went well in the end.
Gauging the mood of those who left the island on Wednesday, Kusay said: “I think they were quite happy and relieved to go back to Germany especially now for the Easter break.”
He said while there were similar restrictions back home to those in Barbados, they were generally relieved they were leaving the island because “it is not everyone’s cup of tea” to be sick in a foreign country where as a visitor, there is a language barrier.
“I think that is also what we as members of the Embassy want, that people who get sick at one point, to rather have them sick in Germany,” he added.
Kusay thanked the EU and Barbados Government for their assistance in the process, saying the relationships have been very strong over the years. marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb
