UK rescue flights for 900 Brits

Over 900 British travellers caught in the Caribbean by the coronavirus pandemic will  soon be headed home on charter flights organised by the UK government, London has announced.

Three flights from Barbados will leave for London Heathrow from Grantley Adams International Airport on June 3, 4 and 5, said the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

The flights will take travellers to Barbados for the transatlantic flight from Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, and Trinidad and Tobago.

This comes on the heels of recent special flights from the Bahamas, Jamaica, Cuba, and Guyana. FCO teams across the Caribbean have also helped over 11,000 Britons return home.

Baroness Sugg, Minister for the Caribbean and the Overseas Territories, said: “We recognise that many British travellers in the Caribbean are still trying to get home. That’s why we are organising our most complex series of charter flights yet to bring up to 900 people back.

“Our teams will keep doing everything they can to get as many as possible home to the UK and will be providing those not returning with the support they need.”

Priority will be given to people who are considered vulnerable – those over 70 and others with medical requirements, adults travelling with young children, and those located in more remote or at-risk areas, she said.

The initiative is part of plan announced by Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab at the end of March.

Some $185 million (£75 million) has been available for special charter flights to the region.