British Nationals Abroad: Coronavirus

Foreign and Commonwealth Office written question – answered at on 22 June 2020.

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Photo of Justin Madders Justin Madders Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many UK citizens are stranded in (a) Spain and (b) Europe as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

Photo of Nigel Adams Nigel Adams Minister of State (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) (Joint with the Department for International Development)

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. We have now brought home over 38,000 people on 186 special charter flights organised by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, from 57 countries and territories. We believe the vast majority of British travellers seeking to return to the UK - and who don't have commercial options - have now done so. The welfare of British nationals remains our top priority. We remain committed to ensuring that British travellers around the globe are able to return and that commercial routes are maintained.

At the current time, there remain commercial options to return to the UK from Spain and most countries in Europe. Our Embassy in Madrid have been working closely with the Government of Spain, airlines and other travel providers to keep vital routes open and help bring back British travellers to the UK. Our consular team continues to work around the clock to provide support, advice and information to British travellers in Spain. Our travel advice and social media pages are also regularly updated to ensure that those wishing to return are aware of further developments.

Through our embassies, and a dedicated central team, we are continuing to monitor whether there are more British travellers abroad seeking to return home immediately, how many, where they are located, whether there are commercial routes available to them and whether support is required.

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