Near or far, UK gov reaches out to assist

Produced in Association with the UK Government   

We can benefit from the knowledge that, when a disaster such as the coronavirus pandemic hits, the British government can call on a panoply of expertly staffed departments to help deal with the consequences

Each department has its own skillset and experience, personnel and assets, which can be deployed to make sure everything is done for the safety of people living in the UK – and also to bring safely home to the UK those.British nationals who have been abroad and find themselves with no means of returning.

Throughout, HM Government has been energetically coordinating across the relevant departments– including the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), and the Department for International Development (DfID).

Bringing it all back home

The FCO administers one of the world’s widest networks of embassies, and the staff have been working flat out since March, helping UK citizens to return home after the world’s transport links simultaneously began to close.

Whether tracking down stranded travellers or organising complex airlifts from stricken or isolated areas, the staff on the ground have coordinated with other assets – airlines, locally deployed UK military forces, or DfID aid personnel – to rescue and return citizens to Britain.

Closer to home, the same kind of coordination has been taking place. For example, in late March on the Isle of Arran, off the west coast of Scotland, a call came in to Kinloss barracks where three Puma helicopters are stationed as part of the UK government’s Aviation Taskforce– specially created to support the coronavirus response in Scotland.

On the island was a critically ill patient, suspected of having Covid-19, needing urgent transfer to Crosshouse University Hospital in Kilmarnock, across the water on the mainland.

The crew took off at 1am and on arrival in Arran met with the emergency medical care team. Squadron Leader Johnny Longland later reflected on a job well done: “Just over three hours after the crew received the call, the patient travelled 162 nautical miles and was in the Intensive Care Unit.”

Mr Gordon Jamieson, Chief Executive of NHS Western Isles and Chair of the Resilience Pandemic Group, said: “It’s really reassuring to have the asset here and all the associated personnel.”

That was here at home, but far away, similar ops are undertaken to alleviate the plight of stranded UK citizens – as happened in Nepal when 109 British travellers (and a further 28 foreign nationals) found themselves stranded after most countries rapidly closed their borders in an attempt to halt the spread of the virus.

Nepal of course is home to one of the most venerated of British Army brigades – the Gurkhas. Very quickly, a rescue mission was planned and then executed with military precision.

The British Gurkhas Nepal network is based in Kathmandu, Pokhara and Dharan, and using their local knowledge, UK Embassy staff and soldiers mapped out the positions of the stranded British travellers.

They travelled over 4,000 miles through the Himalayas to 13 different districts, negotiating river crossings and precarious tracks, to reach the tourists scattered across dozens of mountainous towns, villages and national parks.

By day a postal operator, Sergeant Prakash Gurung, of 29 Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps, volunteered to rescue a British national from Manang in north-west Nepal, navigating a landslide and treacherous single-track roads before driving him back to Kathmandu and a charter flight home to the UK.

“I stepped up because I thought it was a part of my job,”said Sgt Gurung, who has completed three tours of Iraq, as well as serving in Afghanistan, the Middle East, Kenya and Germany, “Helping people in dire situations gives me a sense of satisfaction.”

After the successful completion of the Nepal mission, Her Majesty’s Ambassador, Nicola Pollitt, commented, “Getting British nationals home in such an unprecedented time is a huge challenge around the world … it would have been impossible to get everyone back without the close collaboration of the Embassy and British Gurkhas Nepal.”

More than 700 British travellers were reunited with their families in the UK, and around 70 soldiers and their dependents from different Regiments of the Brigade of Gurkhas and wider British Army, who were in Nepal on leave and holiday, returned to the UK to join the fight against coronavirus.

“We are delighted that we were able to assist the British Embassy, British Nationals and our soldiers and families in Nepal through this trying time,” said Lt Col Peter Wettenhall, Deputy Commander, British Gurkhas Nepal.

Building an airbridge

In total, more than 20,000 British travellers, on 83 Government charter flights, had returned to the UK from across South Asia by early May.

Many of these were repatriated from Pakistan and India thanks to the tireless efforts of local embassy staff.

In India, by early May, over 10,000 UK citizens had already been flown home by the UK government by chartered flights, when the Acting High Commissioner Jan Thompson OBE, announced even more flights, this time from Amritsar. “I am proud that we have already helped more than 10,000 from all over India get back to the UK,” she said. “The final phase of the rescue was concentrated in Punjab where there were still many stranded British nationals.”

By May 15, 64 flights had left Amritsar for the UK and the High Commission continued to reserve as many seats as possible on all flights leaving India for other vulnerable British nationals who had yet to register with the FCO.

In Islamabad, meanwhile,the UK in Pakistan Team of the British High Commission worked tirelessly to ensure all British nationals trapped there by the emergency could travel home to their families in the UK.

Since commencing the improvised airlift in early April, over 25,000 people have flown to back from Pakistan to Britain, of whom nearly 5,000 were on 21 UK government charter flights from Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi–all this during a period which covered the month of Ramadan.

The High Commissioner in Islamabad, Dr Christian Turner, has since announced that the UK is committing a further £4.39 million on top of existing aid, from the FCO via the DfID, to help Pakistan in its efforts to combat the coronavirus.

The DfiD, whose remit includes tackling the worldwide challenges of poverty and disease, mass migration, insecurity and conflict, is also fighting the coronavirus pandemic through its leading role in the global response to the disease.

Insuring a better future

The UK is an international development superpower, as well as a scientific and medical world leader, and has led the scientific response to many global health challenges in the past. UK-based scientists, such as those at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, are playing key roles in the global response to this deadly new virus.

Part of the disease response is research into a possible Covid-19 vaccine, and the UK via the DFID aid budget is the largest single contributor of any country to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI’s) international efforts to find one.

Through this fund, the UK is working to improve understanding of the virus and support scientists around the globe – CEPI is already backing nine potential vaccines.

Researchers at Oxford University, funded through CEPI, are now progressing to clinical trials with funding from the UK government’s Vaccines Taskforce – which is also funding a vaccine trial starting soon at Imperial College.

Once that vaccine is developed, the DfID will help to roll it out across the globe by investing the equivalent of £330 million a year for the next five years in Gavi, the global vaccine alliance. Thanks to the DfID,  the UK was the host of the Global Vaccines Summit, coordinating international investment efforts for Gavi, on 4 June.

Near or far, the UK government is here to help.