More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
A young woman has been left stranded in Fiji for nearly two weeks after she was unable to get a flight home.
Emma Hough from Gillingham is staying in a hostel in the Pacific country after hitting several brick walls while trying to get home safely.
After leaving to backpack through Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania, the 24-year-old former Chatham Grammar for Girls pupil was finishing off her trip in Fiji.
She was due to leave the country for Australia before making her way back to the UK on March 22.
Her mother Kim told KentOnline: "We paid extra money for the flight but when she got to the Fiji airport, Australia changed their policy and she needed a special transfer form to travel."
Emma was told the form would take a couple of days to be approved and therefore she missed the flight.
This meant she was uninsured as the flight hadn't been cancelled.
Kim, of Victoria Street, added: "She has a group of friends, a lot of them have run out of money from booking flights which have then been cancelled and there are two who are in dire need of medication.
Emma's sister Keri urges the government to get people back from Fiji
"I have contacted every embassy, every travel agent, MPs. All of them are saying to go here, or go there or they will get back to you in 72 hours but by then it's too late.
"She's beginning to crack up. Every time they are doing something, the governments are changing the rules and regulations.
"I have been up since 3am this morning, my daughter's made a video. We just need to make these people aware."
Emma has been granted a transit form approving her travel to either Australia or the USA, from where she could, in theory, travel onwards home.
The main international airport in Fiji – on the island of Viti Levu – has closed off all scheduled flights and advice on the UK government's website recommends British visitors need to return immediately.
A national curfew in the country began this week and UK tourists are advised to get in touch with the British High Commission in the South Pacific.
A spokesperson for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: “We recognise British tourists abroad are finding it difficult to return to the UK because of the unprecedented international travel and domestic restrictions
that are being introduced around the world – often with very little or no notice.
“The government has partnered with a number of airlines who have committed to work together to get Brits back to the UK and up to £75 million has been made available for charter flights were commercial options are no longer available.
"We’ll continue working around the clock to bring people home.”
The government is currently working to repatriate those who find themselves stranded abroad, and have struck deals with airlines to get those people back.
Previously, the government advised against all but essential travel around the world, and then urged anyone abroad to make their way home.
