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1,991 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARD British Citizens Abroad: FCO Help to Return HomeI thank my right hon. Friend for his question. I think that I have described the latest data that I have, but, of course, we are tracking the cruise ship in real time. It has been…24 Mar 2020HANSARD British Citizens Abroad: FCO Help to Return HomeI do understand the situation in which people find themselves: they planned to be abroad for a certain period of time and have run out of cash. Given the scale, the Foreign Office…24 Mar 2020HANSARD British Citizens Abroad: FCO Help to Return HomeI thank my hon. Friend for his comments. I have addressed the situation in New Zealand at some length. We are of course looking at that as a matter of urgency. The big thing for…24 Mar 2020HANSARD British Citizens Abroad: FCO Help to Return HomeMy hon. Friend is absolutely right, and I thank him for his kind words. With the effort to get people out of Morocco, where we have worked with the airlines in what was a model…24 Mar 2020HANSARD British Citizens Abroad: FCO Help to Return HomeThe first thing to say is that we have all had constituents contact us to say that they feel vulnerable or are stranded, and I think we all understand how anxious people are in…24 Mar 2020HANSARD British Citizens Abroad: FCO Help to Return HomeYes. Cusco is a very good example of the challenge in Peru, but we believe that we have the capacity. We have the political agreement of the Government in Peru; we just need to…24 Mar 2020HANSARDCovid-19My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The situation is moving very rapidly—to give him a sense of that, I should say that the Foreign Office made more than 200 changes to our travel…17 Mar 2020HANSARDCovid-19The hon. Member makes an excellent point; we do need to work in partnership. We did that in relation to the flights from Wuhan at the outset of the crisis, if I can put it that…17 Mar 2020HANSARDCovid-19I agree with my hon. Friend about the importance of having, within the confines of a democratic institution such as this, a constructive approach, because that will make the…17 Mar 2020HANSARDCovid-19I think that that is probably one for the Department for Transport. I was not clear whether my hon. Friend was asking about the use of private planes for repatriation, or about…17 Mar 2020HANSARDCovid-19We already have a means of doing that: people can sign up for real-time updates, and hon. Members can do that. I appreciate the difficult situation in Poland. As I have said, we…17 Mar 2020HANSARDCovid-19It is very difficult in those circumstances, particularly travelling to less accessible places. We will work closely with all the airliners and our network of embassies to provide…17 Mar 2020HANSARDCovid-19I am aware of that case and we are working actively on it. As with all the cruise ships, the challenge has been to find a place for them to dock and then, not least given the…17 Mar 2020HANSARDCovid-19I thank the hon. Lady for the way in which she asked her question and for complimenting the FCO consular advice. She is right—I talked about this with the Transport Secretary and…17 Mar 2020HANSARDCovid-19My right hon. Friend did an incredible job as Foreign Secretary, in particular in pressing for the release of not just Nazanin, but all our dual nationals suffering in Tehran. I…17 Mar 2020HANSARDCovid-19I thank the hon. Gentleman for his warm words about the FCO’s efforts and the practical advice he has given us; we will certainly take that back. One point I will mention is that…17 Mar 2020HANSARDCovid-19My hon. Friend rightly raises the issue of employees in that sector. We are engaging closely with the big employers around the world. Those individuals are in—I say this…17 Mar 2020HANSARDCovid-19The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. Another Member has raised the issue of Morocco. The Africa Minister will look at those cases and I am sure will be happy, able and…17 Mar 2020HANSARDCovid-19My right hon. Friend makes a good point. For those in South America more generally, there has been a range of concerns in different countries. Fundamentally, we want to encourage,…17 Mar 2020HANSARDCovid-19If anything, this shows—not least in our collaboration with the Cuban Government which, at the level of intensity it has shown in recent days, does not happen very often with our…17 Mar 2020