Please see the video above offering advice for British nationals overseas.
General Advice
I have been contacted by a number of constituents who are overseas and trying to make arrangements to come home. Efforts to support them are, of course, led by the Foreign Office and I am assisting, where I can, to ensure that they are directed to the relevant authorities. The general advice from the Foreign Office is listed below.
The advice from the Foreign Office is:
- Abide by all measures implemented by the host nation.
- Subscribe to alerts from the Foreign Office by visiting https://www.gov.uk/world - then selecting your country – then select ‘get email alerts for this topic’.
- Contact your embassy whose details can also be found at https://www.gov.uk/world
- Contact your travel insurer and see what support they can provide. The numbers of individuals around the globe is enormous and the situation in each country is developing very quickly. This is having a major impact on FCO capacity to support.
- Stay in close contact with me and my office so that we can help in any way we can.
Foreign Office Information ( Monday 30th March)
The Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab MP announced additional measures to ensure the safe return of UK Nationals stranded abroad.
- The Foreign Secretary has been in correspondence with foreign counterparts and heads of state this week including nations with high numbers of UK Nationals abroad such as Australia, New Zealand and India.
- The UK Government assisted in the safe return of over 150,000 British Citizens from Spain, 8,500 from Morocco and 5000 from Cyprus.
- 1,400 have been repatriated from high risk areas such as China and Peru.
- The FCO has liaised with all major airline providers coming to a new agreement on returning UK Nationals.
- British Airways, Virgin, Easy Jet, Jet 2 and Titan will be flying commercial flights to bring UK Nationals home.
- If you are in a country where commercial flights are still flying, please book as soon as possible.
- Airlines will allow you to transfer tickets, even between providers without charge.
- There is a £75 million subsidies on the cost of flights returning back to the UK.
Much advice remains the same. Constituents abroad should try and return to the UK. Travel advice can be found at https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice.
You should remain packed and close to an International Airport. You can also follow your Embassy or High Commission on social media. The FCO has tripled its call centre operators which are available 24/7 at (+44) (0) 207 008 1500.
