A Fife traveller has called for more Government help for Britons stranded abroad after “distressing” efforts to get home from Cambodia.
Jack McLean and girlfriend Grace Goldsmith were among 103 people who made it onto a flight to Heathrow, chartered by an English schoolteacher, at the weekend but the pair said they received no support from the Foreign Office.
The 23-year-old, from Crail, said desperate individuals had been forced to make their own arrangements when commercial flights were repeatedly cancelled.
While he and Grace managed to get home safely, they have expressed concern for at least 200 other Britons still stuck in the Asian country.
“Jerry Lewis almost single-handedly, certainly without any support or guidance from the foreign office or the UK Embassy, organised the repatriation of 100 people stranded on the other side of the world,” he said.
“While the Home Office was advising us to return using commercial flights that were being repeatedly cancelled, individuals have had to take it upon themselves to charter airlines to get us home safe.
“This was incredibly distressing for all those involved and I’m worried for those still stranded abroad without the assistance of the UK Foreign Office.”
Jack and Grace were on a three-month trip to Asia after finishing their studies at Edinburgh and Dundee universities respectively.
They had been due to return home last week when the coronavirus pandemic worsened and airports began closing.
“There was literally no information,” said Jack. “We turned up at the airport and no-one had a clue what to do.
“What happened to us was the closest thing to a miracle I’ve ever had in my life. Lots of other people are still trying to get out.”
Jack and Grace were just two of 39 people from North East Fife whose cases were detailed in a letter from MP Wendy Chamberlain to Foreign Secretary Dominic Rabb.
She has constituents stranded in New Zealand, Cambodia, Australia and Honduras and has called for more help to get them home.
The Liberal Democrat MP claimed many people were still stuck abroad due to grounded flights, despite Foreign Office intervention announced on Monday.
“The Foreign Office is finally working with commercial airlines and repatriating those who are stranded without a means of getting home, but this is after two weeks of inaction when this could have been sorted quickly and effectively before it became an issue,” she said.
“Even now there are still gaps in the system, leaving dozens of my constituents in foreign countries with diminishing resources, sleeping outside airports, repeatedly booking flights that are cancelled at the last moment.
“Our Government cannot continue to repeatedly leave individual citizens to unilaterally do what the Government should be doing to assist them.”
The Foreign Office said it was spending £75 million to support efforts to bring stranded Britons back to the UK.
Mr Raab said hundreds of thousands of people were trying to get home and that the Government was working with airlines and chartering flights to help them.
