Chaos for UK tourists abroad as they face battle to return to Britain amid coronavirus lockdown

British tourists are being stranded abroad and face a battle to return home as  airlines lock down and limit flights due to coronavirus quarantines. 

From Morocco to Peru, reports have surfaced of British travellers stranded at airports, waiting for the chance to return home. 

Spain’s closure of its land borders on Monday sent British tourists at popular resorts Benidorm and Mallorca fleeing for the airports in a mass exodus to reach home before being trapped.  

One British tourist trapped in Marrakesh, Rory O’Connor, told the MailOnline: ‘We’ve been in a queue for easyJet for four hours.

‘We’re probably still another hour to an hour and a half from the front.’

As well as the growing queues, O’Connor said passengers are being provided with contradictory information.    

‘The information being provided by the British Embassy is completely different to what’s being said at the airport,’ O’Connor told the MailOnline.  

‘The ambassador claimed he was getting 30 planes sent over but easyJet, Ryanair and BA have no information on the flights.’

‘The Embassy have been useless,’ he added.   

After arranging for someone at home to book an escape route to get him home this evening, Rory said a member of staff at the information desk told him there was no record of the flight. 

Another traveller trapped in Marrakesh, Beth Marletta, said that British Airways told her they would not be able to send out a rescue flight for weeks despite them promising a repatriation service.

‘Just off the phone to BA who have said they can’t reschedule our flight until April now,’ she told the BBC.

‘There are no rescue flights despite what the news are saying.’ 

Marletta and her partner were due to fly back to Heathrow on Saturday, but have been stuck in Marrakesh with little help from British authorities, she said.  

Thomas Reilly, the British ambassador to Morocco, said that BA, EasyJet, Ryanair and Tui were planning to send out rescue flights in the coming days.

Today, Ryanair announced that it would be cutting its scheduled flights due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Between 18 March and 24 March, the airline said it would cut flights by 80 per cent.

The operator added that customers would be emailed with options, and asked customers not to call as they are overloaded with enquiries.   

From 24 March, Ryanair said that ‘most if not all Ryanair Group flights will be grounded, except for a very small number of flights to maintain essential connectivity, mostly between the UK and Ireland’. 

Images of winding queues have also been uploaded to social media, showing the endless wait for customer service help at the EasyJet desk at Marrakesh airport. 

@_olivelg tweeted: ‘Yellow kiosk on right is start of EasyJet customer service desk (stranded tourists waiting to see if they can buy ticket for repatriation flights on penultimate day before air space closed). 

‘Worms it way around edge of Marrakesh airport. 

‘This is at 9:30am & just one airline queue.’  

Another British tourist, Amir Mahmood, managed to secure a flight home after tweeting a video from Marrakesh airport about his struggle to get back.   

In the video Amir said: ‘We don’t know what to do. We feel completely stranded along with hundreds of other British people.’ 

One traveller, Sarah Baxter, told the Telegraph that she is ‘one of 150 Britons stranded in Peru’.

In an article for the Telegraph, Baxter explained how she came into contact with a group of 150 abandoned British tourists through Twitter, who are now trying to put pressure on the government to help them get out of the country. 

She said she was made aware of the sudden dash to escape the South American country just 24 hours before she would have to leave, or face a 14-day quarantine, and be unable to get home. 

‘Confusion reigned’, Baxter wrote in the Telegraph. ‘There were rumours that extras flights were being put on. Or that even scheduled flights were cancelled.’

After she had exhausted the airborne options, she said that some people tried to flee by taking taxis to neighbouring Bolivia, in the hopes of crossing the border before Peru was locked down. 

After deciding there were too many potential dangers, Baxter said she decided to stay. 

‘So here I am. Confined to a house, only allowed out to pop to the shop or pharmacy (the streets being policed), with little official support,’ she said. 

Of the 150 people abandoned Britons she is now in contact with on Whatsapp, she said that some have health conditions, while others are running out of much-needed medication. 

Two of the 150 people in contact with Baxter could be a pair of British women who are in lockdown at a Peru hostel. 

Tess Bettison and Stevie Chandler said they were unable to book flights out of the country and have been locked down in a hostel amid rising ‘xenophobia’ against Europeans.   

‘We have been locked inside our hostel for safety alongside other British nationals but we don’t know how long we’ll be allowed to stay here,’ Tess told the BBC.  

Similarly to Baxter, they were given just 24 hours to leave, but received no word from the British Embassy or their travel company. 

They tried to get a flight to other locations, like the US or Chile, but some prices were too high.