MS Braemar Docks in Cuba, British Passengers Return Home

Caribbean News…
18 March 2020 6:11pm
British passengers return home

As a result of the coordination between Cuban and British authorities, the transfer of the passengers of the British cruise ship MS Braemar, which Cuba decided to host, was carried out this Wednesday, after the refusal of entry in several Caribbean ports.

The decision comes in response to a health emergency, in which there could be a risk to the lives of the sick, because the ship spent days looking for a place to dock, with more than 600 passengers and at least five confirmed cases of coronavirus on board.

All measures have been taken for the safe, hospitable and expeditious transfer of the ship's passengers and crew, with more than a thousand people on board, who will be taking charter flights from British airlines.

On March 13, the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland requested the Cuban authorities to allow the docking of the Fred Olsen cruise ship, with a small number of travelers affected by the new coronavirus (SARS CoV 2/Covid-19), at a Cuban port and to repatriate them by air.

The operation is carried out under the protocols established by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Cuban Ministry of Public Health.

José Raúl de Armas, head of the Department of Communicable Diseases of the Minsap, in a press conference ruled out the possibility of contagion, since the country has prepared with all the material, human and technological resources to make a quick and precise evacuation to resolve the situation of the cruise ship, to which other countries denied it access.

Dominic Raab, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, thanked the Cuban government on Tuesday for allowing this operation to take place quickly, and for its close cooperation to ensure its success.

British Airways dispatched three Boeing 777 aircraft that landed in Havana and are now ready to fly the British citizens back to their homeland.

Braemar in Mariel

 

Braemar in Mariel

 

passengers on plane

 

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