Carisa Lee

In the last three days, the Unit­ed King­dom has record­ed over 5,000 new COVID-19 cas­es.

But even in light of that, over 120 British na­tion­als are head­ing home via an arrange­ment made by the British High Com­mis­sion.

“There is a sense of re­lief for some of our pas­sen­gers to­day,” British High Com­mis­sion­er Tim Stew said.

Yes­ter­day, sev­er­al UK na­tion­als board­ed a char­tered flight, Li­at 402, to Bar­ba­dos just af­ter noon yes­ter­day to catch a British Air­ways flight, BA 9113, for the UK.

To­day, Li­at flights 402 and 404, are ex­pect­ed to leave Trinidad and To­ba­go re­spec­tive­ly for Bar­ba­dos with more UK na­tion­als. They would board a flight to the UK on Fri­day.

Ac­cord­ing to Stew, the flight pri­ori­tised the vul­ner­a­ble cit­i­zens like Court­ney O’Brien, 74, who told Guardian Me­dia that he has been wait­ing for over a month.

He said he has dual cit­i­zen­ship but ad­mit­ted that the £600 cost of the tick­et was a bit pricey.

“I got to pay ex­tra mon­ey and I’m not quite sure if they would com­pen­sate me when I go back,” O’Brien said.

“We have a set price for all of these flights and it is heav­i­ly sub­sidised by the British Gov­ern­ment,” Stew said.

On March 30, the British Gov­ern­ment pledged to pro­vide up to £75 mil­lion to as­sist strand­ed Britons to re­turn home from places where com­mer­cial routes do not ex­ist due to COVID-19 lock­downs.

The cit­i­zens were un­able to leave this coun­try for over two months as the bor­ders were closed since March 29.

Most of the UK na­tion­als said they have dual cit­i­zen­ship and came to this coun­try to va­ca­tion but were re­lieved to re­turn home and to work.

Lewis Mod­est, 16, said he was anx­ious about all the school­work he missed out on and hopes it does not slow him down.

But there is some­thing else that his African fam­i­ly was con­cerned about--the Black Lives Mat­ter protests in Lon­don.

“I am cer­tain­ly wor­ried about go­ing back to the UK and get­ting wrapped in any kind of race war,” Mod­est’s Fa­ther Lyn­don Mod­est said.

On the same top­ic, Stew said he be­lieves in equal­i­ty and rights for all.

His com­ment came af­ter his part­ner Sha­ba­nia Carter post “All Lives Mat­ter” on So­cial Me­dia. Stew said her views are her views.

“I’m quite clear that she wasn’t in­tend­ing to pro­voke any­body at all,” he said.

Stew de­scribed the is­sue as a sen­si­tive one.