English woman on BBC news pleading with UK government to RESCUE her from India

You can understand backpackers away for a month or more, but anyone that went on a 2 week holiday as such hard to have much sympathy.

agree lapsy

I'd not have her back when UK is in a lockdown. Where is India in the calendar of Covid-19? I do not want any imported Covid-19 cases; a 2nd wave will probably kill more already infected.

indeed it was obvious 3 weeks ago that this was getting serious in Europe. anyone in a distant location should have been making immediate plans to return then

keeping the borders open so a few can be repatriated could cost thousands of lives, we have to draw the line somewhere & unfortunately that will mean some may have to become resourceful.  that's just the way it is unfortunately.  they could always head for sweden, who seem to be carrying on regardless ..

This may sound callous, but I believe anyone intending to travel abroad within the last 3 weeks for whatever reason including a family funeral/wedding should have been aborted given the seriousness and speed of the spread of Covid-19. Or anyone still abroad then should have been returning to the UK or made effort to return to the UK asap.

Tough, but that's how it should be. The risks far outweigh the benefits.

it does sound a little bit callous saying they should have been aborted

I disagree.

None of our people should be left behind to fend for themselves.

Sorry but, if in the midst of all this, she arranged a trip to India then she can sort out her own return. Daft bat. Should be forced to foot the bill for her travel and also for a place to quarantine once she lands.

do they not quarantine when land ?

If the policy is 14 day enforced quarantine for anyone landing from India or New York or whatever then of course that should apply.

But the idea we just leave British citizens to fend for themselves because we disagree with their choices is abhorrent.

Many others over there ??

We arsed up our response weeks ago. But I'm dumbfounded that we didn't demand people return to the country weeks ago or help them repatriate weeks ago if they so wished. That boat has surely long sailed now.

IT - that Shameema (ISIS bride or whatever) is a british citizen. Don't remember you being so keen on taxpayers footing the bill and having some people risking their safety bringing her home.


Fact is, this should have been sorted out weeks ago. We knew this was coming. What were we doing letting people swan off on holiday?

by all means work with the consulate in india or wherever to ensure their safety.  but coming back here should be off the agenda, our borders should be closed.

How many are over there ??  If enough the RAF will go ...

Is anyone actually interested in Begum ???

She is probably back anyway

Always easy to judge things in hindsight.
If Boris had called for a lockdown in February when there were only a handful of cases,
Porky and his ilk would be going on about human rights, and a police state,
and others would be calling it an economic disaster.

Nope, just wrong lad. This was a spreading pandemic and the responsible thing was to protect the public. Maybe not shut down straight away (I'd have blocked flights from Milan once the virus escaped in Lombardy) but we could have been testing at a much higher rate (still not now) and never mind allowing thousands of Atleti fans to fly in from Madrid weeks later!!! and been stockpiling medical equipment given there were very good odds they'd have been needed.

compassion
sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.

Mar 29, 2020 -- 9:05PM, mad mad moon wrote:

Always easy to judge things in hindsight.If Boris had called for a lockdown in February when there were only a handful of cases,Porky and his ilk would be going on about human rights, and a police state,and others would be calling it an economic disaster.

Agree, and it's also for me to say this in hindsight, but South Korea have handled this much better from the start by adopting the WHO guidelines of test and trace, which we still refuse to do.

When they originally set off say 3 weeks ago surely they had some inkling they were gambling? Unless you were blind altogether the signs were getting worse then even.
Why take the risk?
They will be brought back soon enough,Few landed from Peru in Dublin tonight before going on to UK.
I do think the cruise companies were slowish to act.

porky the defender of the indefensible  pontificating and talking down to a 'lad'  - what an arrogant supercilious aftertiming poser

Mar 29, 2020 -- 9:35PM, moisok wrote:

porky the defender of the indefensible

All the right wing fella's are your buds Moisok,ya won't say boo to them,we are all human,Mr Chang an all.

No advertising from me soft lad, my opinions were on here weeks ago.


One day, one of your accusations is gonna be in the same postcode as the mark. Hope I'm around to see it.

Love to see what I've been defending too fwiw.

pp,

Begum is not a British citizen.

She is

No she is not. Why make things up?

What has the plight of someone who is not a British citizen got to do with dozens of British citizens left to fend for themselves in India?

Personally I think the British government should help our people stuck in India who were given 4 hours notice of lockdown.

well, ok...she was british till our government unilaterally decided to strip her of her citizenship.

maybe they should just do the same to this woman in india and get you onside.

Strange idea that people who are stuck in a foreign country whilst on holiday due to the virus outbreak should be stripped of their British citizenship in the same way as someone who joined a terrorist state.

I fail to see the link between the two situations.

I, for one, hope that the government can get our people home from India and elsewhere.

Governments relieving themselves of their responsibilities towards individual citizens is an abhorrent practice.

I see similarities.

People making stupid decisions, travelling very far in good knowledge that they might struggle to get back home. When that does indeed happen, they want someone else to step in and bail them out.

Begum shouldn't have fallen for the IS mythology and gone to Syria, and these people shouldn't have gone on holiday just as travel was being restricted.

If I had a family member working in this area, I'd be appalled if they were put in harm's way because of some idiot ignoring advice and swanning off on holiday.

Personal resposibility, would you have brought your family/wife on a holiday from say the 10th of March?
Even going through an airport and sitting on a plane is/was a risk.
I certainly won't have done that to anyone i cared about, you seem as if you might have.

annoys me is the people are always stating how much been quoted for a flight home, always seem to be posh people or students on a gap year, **** em, make them pay.

What next?

A social credit system if people do not behave as 'required'?

It is a time for the country to stick together and protect our people.

Not to fight amongst ourselves.

I had a flight booked for Rome on 13th March. It was not rocket science not to get on it. Little sympathy for many  people stuck without a route home atm. I also ask why or who allowed them to fly out?

I believe in Charles Darwin

It is a time for the country to stick together and protect our people.

Not to fight amongst ourselves.

Are you taking The Guardian now IT?

Sticking together and protecting people also requires taking personal responsibility and not putting yourself in harm's way and expecting someone else to endanger themselves to help you when you do something unnecessary and idiotic.

So if someone behaves like an 'idiot' the rest of society and government should no longer offer them any support?

Depends

"So if someone behaves like an 'idiot' the rest of society and government should no longer offer them any support? "
"Depends"
.. on if they are called Diane Abbott or not?

Or Begum, perhaps.

Why would anybody want to go to a backward sh!thole like India - in the first place?

- and - please don't give me any of that cultural crap.

Reminds me of discussing with my best mate and his wife countries we'd like to visit. (They live in Brighton, so you can imagine what the wife is like.) I said I couldn't think of anywhere abroad I'd particularly want to visit. My mate suggested India.

"No thanks," I replied. "I grew up in Slough."

My mate guffawed loudly. His wife glared at him. Then at me. Then back at her husband again. That was the last time I was allowed in their house. Ever since then my mate and I have to arrange a pub we can meet in secretly when I'm in town.

The government allowed them to fly out, so they have a responsibility to try and get them back, which in fairness they are.

Onlooker, my brother goes for three months every winter as a volunteer worker at two or thee yoga ashrams, he really does go for the cultural crap.

I saw two uk doctors on the news apparently desperate to get back to help. Left me wondering what made em go considering it was already here. I'd have kept a discrete silence had it been me.

I heard they are curtailing their Space Programme and will be using the savings they have made to buy the poor and destitute in our country some toilet roll

Mar 30, 2020 -- 3:41PM, saddo wrote:

Onlooker, my brother goes for three months every winter as a volunteer worker at two or thee yoga ashrams, he really does go for the cultural crap.I saw two uk doctors on the news apparently desperate to get back to help. Left me wondering what made em go considering it was already here. I'd have kept a discrete silence had it been me.

People using their NHS jobs as some kind of emotional blackmail currency, jumping on social media demanding the government rescues them is pretty poor form imo.

The government allowed them to fly out, so they have a responsibility to try and get them back, which in fairness they are.

Or ...

They themselves made the decision to fly out, so they have a responsibility to take steps to ensure they can get themselves back, which they didn't.

One of the paybacks for living in a country where the government doesn't get to decide who's allowed to travel abroad and who isn't is that the traveller has to take responsibility for themselves.

We've tried the version where it's the government who decides who's allowed to fly out and who isn't, but that ended in Berlin in 1989.

and started in the UK a couple of weeks ago.

The government is the one with a team of scientists and other experts following the developments.  Joe Bloggs doesn't.

You'd have to have rocks in your head not to have been aware you could get stuck. As screaming says, just because someone is allowed to do something despite the risks doesn't mean they can get bailed out when those risks are borne out.

Unless they are a bank.

You'd need to have more rocks in your head not to make the public aware that their return flights might not happen.  I'm not aware that the govt did this.

can she  not get food from anywhere?  poor lady

The govt. is meant to be dispassionate and logical in decision making.  Holidays are often emotional decisions where rationality often goes out the window.

from a life /death  pov , if it's shelter and food she requires/receives  she will only  need to self isolate no ?

Anyone who chose to go abroad for a holiday, business trip or family concern in the last 2/3 weeks on their own accord when Covid-19 was progressively gripping the world ought to stay abroad until the lockdown is no longer - they could be unwittingly be carriers. It's tough I can understand nevertheless just needed to bear it out there.

There are of no benefit to the UK only possible risks returning, and with Covid-19 approaching its peak very soon it's risks not worth taking. This's not abandoning British subjects abroad, but protecting those within the country.

Tough but fair in my book. We make our bed, we lie on it.

My emotion would be fook I'd rather not risk being trapped in a foreign country with no route home during a global pandemic thanks

Foreign Sec
@DominicRaab
announces new scheme to help stranded UK citizens abroad.

-where commercial flights are no longer running, British govt will help fund and arrange special charter flights.
-in arranging those flights those in vulnerable groups will be prioritised.

NEW: Raab announces a £75m fund to help ‘tens of thousands’ of people home. Signed MoU with group of airlines to help get them home if still commercial option (such as travelling on a different carrier). If no option FCO will work with CTM travel co to organise charter flights.

It would appear that Raab doesn't read the forum

Raab: Through work with other governments to keep commercial flights going we've helped get
- 150,000 home from Spain,
- 8, 500 from Morocco
- 5,000 from Cyprus

For me, it's not that they shouldn't be helped, it's that they shouldn't feel entitled.

Which is a reasonable distinction to make.

This is shocking,surely ex colonial countries like India,Pakistan,Bangadesh etc should get priority first?

woman stuck in NZ ...  must be one of the safest places on earth surely ?

If you went abroad in line with UK govt guidelines, it's different from if you ignored them.  There is a big distinction.  If you ignored them then the Govt would be only right to get compensation.

This has been very fast moving.  Easy to aftertime and call people idiots, when they followed government guidelines.

Did I hear Correctly People are still stranded in China . I'm sorry they should have left China at least a Month ago , Who are these People ??

Likely quite a few people been residing abroad and fleeing to the safety of their home country. Probably not too many looking to be rescued from Germany or Singapore.

Mmmm....indeed, suppose it was only 2 weeks ago they were going full pelt herd immunity theory route, maybe they thought is was better to take a chance in India for a few weeks?

looking forward to the government telling me if it's gonna rain next time and I'm on holiday and to bring me home if it does.

pity there aren't a few in the UK  fleeing to their own country for safety 

Cider 30 Mar 20 17:10 
Likely quite a few people been residing abroad and fleeing to the safety of their home country. Probably not too many looking to be rescued from Germany or Singapore.





I thought that when I read 150k from Spain. Would we have that many tourists there in March?

ex pats

I'd be appalled if those in the UK now decide to leave the country and head to places like China or Japanese where Covid-19 is near history to escape the peak of it here. Then infect the locals there instigating a 2nd wave of the virus. And, then ask the government to be brought back to the UK (by this time UK is past its worst).

That's exactly what the locals here (London/London suburbs) with 2nd home in the country eg Devonshire/Cornwall/Glocestershire, etc, are doing to escape the more infected London. Then returning to London after infecting the locals in the country.

If so, the Covid-19 circle perpetuates indefinitely.

150,000 back from spain ?  one of the biggest covid hotspots on the entire planet ...

Woman speaking earlier is stuck in a hostel in Peru. They aren't allowed to leave, and the police are apparently allowed to shoot people disobeying the lockdown orders.

Still, perhaps they are allowed to buy Easter Eggs without some officious ***t telling shops they can't stock them as they are "non essential".

Britain will not put up with much of that sh1t, I can tell you. What happened to common sense, necks need wound in.

if we're getting 150,000 in from spain we may as well invite the whole of lombardy over and we can have a massive street party on the mall ...

A lot of oldsters go to Spain for the winter. It's not really a holiday, more of a second home.

London evacuees should not be expecting help from provincial hospitals or food from local shops 


I don't think that cohort however  do much spreading  ,they were  just the original carriers

Why are some humans so selfish and stupid? Humankind is more important than self-preservation; nobody had asked them to go to Spain. And, if they said they had taken advice before doing so then they knew there was a risk - risk for a holiday? Madness of the highest degree I say given the increasing hold of Covid-19 in Europe and the UK.

probably didn't want to risk losing the holiday if they couldn't go .

more needs to be done to re-assure people that they will be covered

aren't a lot of these ex pats begging to get back to the UK ?

I know someone who went to tenerife and got back on one of the very last flights   ... she doesn't have much,  has been saving hard and was prepared to take the risk  ...so in one hand selfish but   at the same time not trusting  getting their holiday back ...

what happens in 3 weeks time when gideon's decided he's had enough of finding himself with the tibetan monks and want's to come home ?  send a hercules over for him, 'no one get's left' style ...

Taxes from people who can't afford foreign holidays being used to bring home people who can afford foreign holidays.

Amazing short memories people have here about how quickly this went from "not much to see here" to a global "OMFG" and how there has already been trouble getting home for a week or two now. I very much doubt many peole stranded decided to head off after it had all started going crazy, and people who go to places like India and Peru often go for a fair old time, not a quick weekend.

There's an awful lot of judgment and not a lot of seeing how things might have happened on this forum!