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Airport representatives say it has affected at least 10,000 Lithuanians. Getting there by ferry and then overland will fail too – countries are simply closing their borders to UK passengers.
Night at the airport. Returning migrants from the UK rush to their loved ones to celebrate Christmas. However, not everyone knows that this is one of the last trips as from 4pm no UK passenger planes are allowed in the morning and flights are suspended for 10 days.
PHOTO GALLERY. Returning migrants are attacking their loved ones, there is no way to stop them
Such a decision regarding the rapid spread of the new coronavirus strain in the UK was made by the Government after an extraordinary meeting just at a time when these Lithuanians, who were traveling at night, were already heading to their homeland.
“It just came to our attention then. I didn’t know. The sad news, but also good news, is that the rules have to be stricter,” says Paulius, who flew in from London.
“Exciting. Very happy. It may be the last Christmas at home,” says Justė, who arrived from London.
However, not everyone managed to return to Lithuania in a good mood. Some say they have suffered a lot of stress because banned flights to other countries have already started to panic at London airports yesterday:
“We came back to accompany my mother to the funeral tomorrow. That’s why we came back.”
“When I got to the airport, there were ‘presidential’ flights to Italy, to other countries, and to Germany, there was a ‘presbytery,’ so we all kept our fingers on the plane and were glad to get there somehow.”
And their trip to London from Montenegro cost Renata and Kęst the nerves, who are expecting a daughter. There was a threat that she would be trapped at the airport.
“I flew from Montenegro on the 19th, landed in London, spent the night at the airport and today we didn’t know if he would fly or not. We were worried until the last minute,” says Mom Renata.
The Minister of Transport and Communications, Marius Skuodis, says that Lithuania has banned the flights after consultations with other European countries. Already 18 of them have suspended flights from the United Kingdom and France, for example, it has cut the air and the ground for 48 hours.
There are units from those countries that have not yet stopped flights from the United Kingdom. And certainly the window of these possibilities is very limited, but that is our objective, “said Minister of Transport and Communications Marius Skuodis.
This caused panic not only in European airports, but also in the families of Lithuanian emigrants who were still planning to return for vacation.
“It just came to our knowledge then. I can’t imagine I don’t know what to do,” says Kristina Vaitkevičiūtė, a Lithuanian living in Nottingham.
Kristina says that at 7pm today she had to leave the UK permanently and return to her new home in Lithuania with her husband and a two-year-old whose passport expires a week later. When plans collapsed, the family rushed to buy tickets to Poland, even considering traveling home with truckers.
“We bought tickets to Poland, but not that day either. We bought it for lunch on Tuesday, but we bought it so that we can’t go to Poland on Tuesday either. Today is the last tickets costing £ 500 per person today. There were also proposals to go to Ireland with “furists”, but that Scotland and Ireland are also closed here “, says R. Vaitkevičiūtė.
Almost a month ago, TV3 News spoke with Alexander, who came to Lithuania from England on vacation.
“I’ll be back on the 23rd, before Christmas. And again, I’ll take the test while I’m in England, I’ll fly here. I hope it is negative and that everything goes well, ”says Aleksandr Marjenkov, a Lithuanian living in England.
The man at the time did not even dream that the vacation plans would change so drastically. He had to fly back to Lithuania the next day.
“It just came to our notice then. Sure, it’s very uncomfortable, but you have to keep going. I thought about driving a car and a bus, but no one goes anywhere with a car or a bus, because they don’t go in or out,” he says A. Marjenkov.
The Minister for Transport and Communications calls on Lithuanians living in the UK to simply refuse their trip to Lithuania as it is now difficult to get there by land.
“If there is a possibility of avoiding travel, it should be avoided in every way, because the possibility of encountering significant obstacles at the border cannot be ruled out,” said M. Skuodis.
By the way, those who want to fly to the UK will not be able to do the same. This morning, airlines canceled all flights to the country affected by the mutated virus, at least until the New Year.
“Overall, more than 100 flights to Great Britain were forecast to depart from Lithuanian airports, both inbound and outbound. Passenger traffic is projected to total around 10,000 passengers. 7,000 passengers were forecast to arrive from Great Britain. and some 3,000 passengers were scheduled to travel to Great Britain, ”says Aurimas Stikliūnas, Head of the Department of Aviation Services.
“People were worried, especially those who had come to the UK temporarily and had to return to Lithuania, to their place of residence, to families who had only been there for a couple of days to do some things or for some other purpose,” he says. the leader of the Lithuanian community. Alvija Černiauskaitė.
The new strain of coronavirus was discovered by researchers in the UK in November. So far, there is no evidence that the mutated virus is more dangerous or that it will not be affected by the vaccine. However, it is spreading much faster, which is a challenge for coronavirus patients who are already overcrowded.
“About 10 per cent. Of all cases, and in a given region, the south east of England, up to 50 of all cases are caused by a mutated virus. The infectivity of this new” strain “can be roughly one 70 percent higher than that of the ‘strains’ that initially began to circulate. And this is understandably a cause for great concern, “says Saulius Čaplinskas, director of the Center for Communicable Diseases and AIDS.
New strains of the virus have been recorded in Denmark, the Netherlands, and even Australia. The director of the Center for Communicable Diseases and AIDS does not rule out the possibility that it is already circulating in Lithuania. Almost a quarter of a thousand people flew back to Lithuania from the UK last week.
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