Following today’s Government announcement on flying Britain’s trapped abroad due to the coronavirus crisis, Emily Thornberry MP, Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary has criticised the plans for not addressing the issues faced by hundreds of thousands of Brits around the world. Thornberry said:

“We were promised a new strategy on repatriations today, but for  the hundreds of thousands of Brits stranded abroad and their families back home – it was just more of the same.

“More reliance on commercial flights, which – for too many British travellers based in too many locations – are simply not an option at present. More vague promises about charter flights‎, but none of the commitment or urgency other countries like Germany have put into this.

“More expressions of support for our Brits abroad, but no answers to any of the specific problems they are raising, from the loss of travel insurance and accommodation to dwindling supplies of medicine and money.

“We need a comprehensive and fully-funded strategy to bring our British nationals home, using every option at the government’s disposal, and to give them all the practical support and help they need in the interim. That is not what we got today, and that is not good enough.”