Up To A Million Britons Stranded Abroad Are Still Scrambling To Return To The UK Amid The

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Up to a million Britons stranded abroad are still scrambling to return to the UK amid the [/news/coronavirus/index.html coronavirus] pandemic - including 6,000 marooned in [/news/new_zealand/index.html New Zealand] and thousands trapped in Peru.
The government has been urging against all foreign travel and for people to make their own way back for more than a week, but many have found it difficult to get tickets after many commercial flights have been cancelled.
New Zealand has imposed one of the strictest lockdowns of any country to battle the deadly disease, and has grounded international flights, leaving thousands of Brits, including doctors and nurses, desperate to get home. 
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has called Winston Peters, New Zealand's Deputy Prime Minister, to ask for assistance in getting Brits home. 
Mr Raab is also expected to announce a huge repatriation effort today amid mounting fears over safety.
RAF voyager transport planes could be deployed to bring UK citizens home from places such as India and Peru, where conditions are thought to be deteriorating.
It comes as two repatriation flights carrying British passengers from Peru have landed at Heathrow Airport.
The British Airways flights left Lima on Sunday and landed at the west London hub on Monday morning. 
Casi Cartwright and Lewis Dafydd who are currently stranded in Peru, like many other Brits

British critical care nurse Rachel Brockbank is stuck in Christchurch due to lockdown after visiting with family for sister's wedding
The Foreign Office has not said how many passengers were on board, but said two more flights will leave Peru on Monday, arriving in the UK on Tuesday.
The repatriation flights were arranged by the Foreign Office in partnership with British Airways to rescue more than 1,000 stranded Britons.
Since the outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan, the Foreign Office has helped to bring home almost 1,400 people on specially chartered Government flights from China and Peru and 1,900 people on cruise ships from places including California, Brazil and Japan.
In the last week, the Foreign Office has helped more than 4,000 people to get back from Jamaica and more than 8,500 people to get back from Morocco.
Around 5,000 Britons successfully left Bali after the British team in Indonesia worked with their counterparts to unblock a visa permissions issue. 
A number Britons in New Zealand are using social media to call on the government, and specific airlines to get them safely home.
The party of eight tourists - including young children - are trapped in Goa, thousands of miles from home, while their supplies of medicine and food dwindle
 A British family have been left stranded in India after their flight home was cancelled due to Coronavirus.
The party of eight tourists - including young children - are trapped in Goa, thousands of miles from home, while their supplies of medicine and food dwindle.
Despite efforts to contact the British Embassy, the family say they have had 'no sign of help' as their holiday in paradise turns into a living nightmare.
They also claim to have been attacked by stick-wielding Indian police officers who told them 'we can beat you now, no-one will care' when they left their hotel to try to buy food.
Two repatriation flights carrying British passengers left Peru for Heathrow Airport in London yesterday (pictured)
The British Airways flights left Lima on Sunday and landed at the west London hub on Monday morning
The Foreign Office has not said how many passengers were on board the flights from Peru (pictured) but said two more flights will leave the country on Monday, arriving in the UK on Tuesday
An online petition to try to get the group home has already gathered hundreds of signatures.
Mother-of-two Chanttel Carrington, from Isle of Sheppey in Kent, said: 'We are stranded with little money, and three of our party members are in need of prescribed medication.
'We have tried to contact the British Embassy multiple times with no success.
'There is no sign of help or support whatsoever.'
Other group members include Ms Carrington's children Ivy-rose McCoy, six, and son George McCoy, four, as well as her partner Barney McCoy.
British holiday rep Alana Swadkins has pleaded for help after she and her heavily pregnant friend were 'abandoned' in Turkey by Easyjet during the coronavirus pandemic
The rest are Ms Carrington's parents Gary and Denise Carrington, aged 59 and 56 respectively, her sister Charley Carrington, 19, and Charley's 18-year-old boyfriend Luke Manning.
They had gone on holiday to the coastal state of Goa, but their flight home last Monday, March 23, was cancelled as travel chaos amid the pandemic continued to snowball.
Ms Carrington claimed that she and Mr McCoy received rough treatment from local police when they went to get medication and food for their children, and were ordered back to their hotel.
She added: 'We went to the shops to get some medicine and also some food for our children the police attacked my partner with sticks when we attempted to try and buy food and medicine.'
Meanwhile a British holiday rep has pleaded for help after she and her heavily pregnant friend were 'abandoned' in Turkey by Easyjet during the coronavirus pandemic.
Alana Swadkins fears it could be months before she gets back to her home in Northfield, Birmingham, after her Easyjet flight to Manchester on April 3 was cancelled.
The 27-year-old - who works as a Tui rep - flew out to Dalaman at the beginning of March for an extended holiday with her pregnant friend, Natalie.
But just two weeks into their getaway, and as the global Covid-19 situation worsened, Alana attempted to contact the airline to find out if they would need to change their £90 flights.
She claims that a customer service representative assured her that the flight would stand as it was leaving the country and not entering.
Five friends who were left fearing they would be stranded in Thailand Lipa due to the coronavirus crisis have spoken of their delight at plans to bring them home.

Pictured are Ellen Ashley, 70, Kathleen Bell, 72, Joan Holland, 62, Joan Balderson, 78 and Patsy Short, 70
Alana said: 'When we came out to Turkey on Tuesday, March 10, the scale of the coronavirus hadn't hit the scale it is now.

The virus ha  not even hit Turkey at that point.
'But as the situation changed, I contacted Easyjet and they assured me that the flights on Friday, April 3, would still stand and we would not need to worry.
'They explained if there was change they would contact us immediately and we could either get a refund or a repatriation flight would be on instead.
'Because I work for Tui, I was aware that they had a repatriation flight on Monday, March 23, that I could have boarded but they once again explained there was no need to worry.'
But just days after the assurance, the pair heard rumours that repatriation flights were stopping so tried contacting Easyjet again.
Alana said: 'I have now been on hold for countless hours over the last five days and had any further.
'Their online chat has been turned off, there is no response to my Instagram message and their Facebook is an automated message.
'I'm even on hold so long on the phone that it just cuts off or goes back to the switchboard.
'There is no communication from them whatsoever about what's happening - yet they have taken our money and still allowing others to book on to our flights.
'We don't know when we will be able to get home or how long we will be stuck here.
'My friend, Natalie, is also 31 weeks pregnant and she will go over the safe-to-fly requirement the longer we are here - it is not ideal.
'We really are struggling to think of any other way for us to get back.' 
Screengrabs from Alana's phone show calls ranging from 15 minutes to up to two hours to Easyjet's customer service line.
The holiday rep, who was due to work in Zante over summer, has also said that the pair are only on a 90-day visa and cannot apply for a longer-stay permit due to the lockdown in the country.
As of Friday, the number of coronavirus-related deaths in Turkey had risen to 92, while total cases reached 5,698. 
An Easyjet spokesman said: 'We're sorry to hear of these passengers' experience.
'Due to ongoing restrictions that continue to be implemented by authorities as a result of Covid-19, we are currently not operating any rescue flights to or from Turkey however we remain in contact with the UK government and have offered to operate repatriation flights where needed.
'Where we have been required to cancel flights as a result of travel restrictions, we have been committed to getting customers home as quickly as possible and so we have worked hard to operate a programme of more than 600 rescue flights so far, bringing over 45,000 customers home since travel restrictions have been implemented.
Crispian Wilson at the Foreign Office has said that commercial routes are the only practical option for many Brits stranded abroad
'We advise anyone who did not book on to the available rescue flights and wants to travel at this time to contact their local embassy for further guidance.' 
Five friends who were left fearing they would be stranded in Thailand due to the coronavirus crisis have spoken of their delight at plans to bring them home.
Joan Holland, 62, Kathleen Bell, 72, Joan Balderson, 78, Ellen Ashley, 70 and Patsy Short, 70, jetted from Newcastle on Tuesday, March 17, to celebrate Patsy's birthday.
But a day after they arrived in Pattaya City, which is almost two hours drive away from Bangkok, businesses began to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The group say they have struggled to get advice and information from Hays Travel and failed to get answers from their insurance company, with conflicting guidance from the British Embassy in London.
Now - after a flight they had been booked on earlier was cancelled - the pals have been told they will be able to board a plane to London on Friday, April 3, just two days after they were originally due to depart the country.
The women have been left fearful for their health, as they have been told the virus is causing large numbers to fall ill in the capital, with only limited amounts of medication and cash with them.
Joan Holland told of their relief after Hays made new plans to bring them home.
She said: 'After a very long phone conversation with Hays Travel, we have been told we have flights to London on April 3, we just have to move hotel for a couple of days.
'We are ecstatic that we are coming home.
'We don't know how we getting home from London, but that's the least of our problems.
Reece Hall, 24, from Cornwall, fell victim to a mugging and serious assault on February 26 in north Goa, leaving him with a fractured jaw, eye socket and leg injury, now severely infected
'It's been a horrible experience and not one we would like to go through again.' A spokesperson for Hays Travel said: 'We are really pleased to have been able to secure flights back to the UK for Joan and her friends, we know what a worrying situation this must have been for them.' 
The children saw the spectacle and Ms Carrington said: 'My son was crying and said are we going to die in this hotel?
'The hotel is running out of food and the kids are starting to get poorly and distressed with the situation.' 
Brits in New Zealand are using Twitter to try and get home by appealing to airlines and politicians.
A user Twitter user called Fen said: 'Waking up to an email from @EmilyThornberry is the one thing that has given me hope that I will be able to return home.

I can't thank her enough for what she is trying to do for us all.' 
And Shannon Rickards, said:  'When @qatarairways have the chance to literally become THE BEST AIRLINE IN THE if they step up and get people home. Unlike who many of us will never fly with again. #britsinNZ #getushome.
Dr Marion Lynch is one of many medical professionals currently in the country and has implored the government to get them home so they can help battle the coronavirus. 
And critical care nurse Rachel Brockbank is currently stuck in New Zealand after visiting with her family for her sister's wedding, but is desperate to get home.
She told the New Zealand Herald: 'I want to go back.

I don't think my family want me to but I feel that's where I should be. That's where I'm needed.' 
Heidi Hawkins, 49, a carer from West Sussex (pictured with her grandchild) is stuck in south Goa and said she is afraid to go out for food due to police brutality
Twitter user Fen is one of those stranded in New Zealand and is asking the UK government for help
Labour MP Emily Thornberry tweeted today about Mr Raab's expected repatriation plan
<div class="art-ins mol-factbox floatRHS news" data-version="2" id="mol-6cf75a20-7263-11ea-bdbb-cf4d23009ec8" website to a million Britons stranded abroad scrambling to return to the UK