The family of a ‘scared’ 20-year-old British woman stranded in Honduras because of the coronavirus pandemic is calling on the Government to bring her home.
Freya Madeley, 20, is trying to return from a rural area of the Central American country, where she had been volunteering as an English teacher.
It is understood the British Embassy has secured a seat on a Swiss flight to Zurich on Thursday and will provide her with an official safe passage letter to get to the airport.
But her family, from Nailsworth, near Stroud in Gloucestershire, say the five-hour taxi ride to the capital city Tegucigalpa is too dangerous as police and gangs vie for control amid the country’s strict lockdown.
Freya Madeley (pictured) was volunteering in Honduras, Central America, as an English teacher when the pandemic hit
Ms Madeley (pictured) is scared at the prospect of the taxi journey to the capital where gangs are said to be vying for control
‘She’s scared, she’s nervous,’ said Ms Madeley’s primary school teacher mother, Maria, 50.
‘Food is getting scarce there. At the moment there is a complete lockdown with gangs and police trying to control it. She hasn’t got much local currency. She’s basically completely stuck.’
The family are calling for the Government to arrange a repatriation flight for her and other British travellers from Ramon Villeda Morales International Airport, around 30km away from the school she had been working at.
Ms Madeley said her daughter had her bags on a flight to Frankfurt last week but did not secure a seat, while another young British woman she was volunteering with flew home.
‘She’s going to be on her own there, in rural Honduras,’ she said. Sister Holly, 24, said she doesn’t think the Government is doing enough to help stranded citizens and that Freya has been left in danger.
‘The lockdown in the area is primarily being enforced by local gangs, however occasionally heavily armed police will show up in my sister’s town, provoking widespread terror,’ she said.
‘She has been warned by locals that the police have the authority to shoot anyone who runs away from them, and she has witnessed incidents of police brutality upon members of the public caught breaking the area’s 3pm curfew.
‘At nighttime, no one is allowed outside and doors and windows must be kept closed, as helicopters spray disinfectant across the town in an attempt to stop the virus from spreading.’
The 20-year-old (pictured) is booked onto a Swiss flight but her family are concerned about the five-hour taxi ride she has to take to the capital
Holly said there are roadblocks, with armed men demanding payments to pass through, around Honduras and the family do not think it is safe for Freya to travel to Tegucigalpa.
‘We do not know whether there will be any further flights provided by other EU countries, and we do not know when the UK government will get around to chartering its own repatriation flight,’ she said. ‘My sister is very afraid, and our whole family is worried for her safety.’
A Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) spokeswoman said: ‘We know it’s a difficult time for many British travellers abroad – especially those with challenging circumstances.
‘Our consular teams are doing everything they can, especially for those in difficulty, to keep Brits informed on the latest developments and help them return – on commercial flights where they are still available or special charter flights as well. We’ll continue working around the clock to bring people home.’
It comes after the Government announced more flights to repatriate UK nationals stranded around the world on Monday, with hundreds of thousands of people struggling to return to Britain due to coronavirus travel restrictions.
The FCO revealed details of flights to bring tourists back from India, Nepal, the Philippines and South Africa – but travellers will have to pay up to £1,000 for a ticket.
It comes as other UK travellers stranded overseas have expressed anger at the amount of time and money it is taking them to get home.
One woman said she is spending ‘every waking moment’ trying to return.
A £75 million operation to charter flights from destinations where commercial routes have been severed due to the coronavirus pandemic was launched by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office last week, but demand for seats appears to be outstripping supply.
Two rescue flights chartered by the Government will repatriate British nationals from the Philippines on Tuesday. Further flights will operate this week from India, South Africa and Nepal.
Shekhar Sharma, a 42-year-old banker from London, has lived in the UK for the last 16 years but is stranded in India after visiting his parents.
He has registered for a rescue flight from Delhi to London and paid the £581 fee, but has been told that only gets him a spot on a waiting list.
He said: ‘The UK seems to be the last country to be trying to bring people back home. There are 20,000 people who have registered to try and get back from India, so it does not seem like the effort they are putting in is nearly enough to get people home.
‘I have now been waiting in Delhi for 15 days to try and get home. I am lucky because I am in a position to pay, but when a normal return flight is between £500 and £600, to charge £581 for one way seems a lot.
‘The UK Government promised it was spending £75 million to get people home, but where has that money gone? These fares do not seem subsidised at all.’
Mr Sharma is particularly eager to return to London as he only has enough medication left to last him for three days and he is due to start a new job soon.
‘I really do not want to be out of a job in the current situation,’ he added.
A family of nine, who did not want to be named, went to Cape Town, South Africa, for a wedding on March 11 but cannot get home as the country has closed its airspace.
The group, including a toddler and a seven-year-old child, were unable to get seats on earlier flights after the airspace closure was announced.
A family member told the PA news agency: ‘On the 26th, with no way home, I registered with the High Commission/Foreign and Commonwealth Office that we were here and needed to get home.
‘I didn’t even get confirmation of that registration until the 31st. Since then I’ve spent every waking moment trying to find out how we can get home.
‘Finally the repatriation flights were announced. We are having to pay £856 per person for those flights. That’s just short of £7,000 for my family. Up until now we still don’t have confirmation we have a flight. Just got to sit and wait.’
The woman added that their travel insurance provider has indicated that the family are not covered as the circumstances fall under an ‘act of God’ exclusion.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said more than 2,000 UK nationals have so far been repatriated on charter flights from seven different countries, including Peru, Ghana and Tunisia.
Last week, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps estimated that around 300,000 UK travellers were stranded.