Beatriz Larrotcha during the press conference./ Photo: Foreign Ministry
The Diplomat. 13/09/2017
The Foreign Ministry announced yesterday the repatriation of fifty Spaniards affected by hurricane Irma in the Caribbean island of Saint Martin, as well as the body of Lorena Enebral, the Spanish physiotherapist murdered on Monday in the north of Afghanistan.
This is how the Ministry’s undersecretary, Beatriz Larrotcha, announced it during a press conference at the Viana Palace, in Madrid. For that purpose, she pointed out, the Government chartered an airplane Airbus A400M of the Spanish Air Force that took off yesterday with humanitarian aid for the countries affected and to repatriate the Spaniards.
According to data provided by the consular register and the Ministry’s Consular Emergency Unit, there are fifty Spaniards, between tourists and residents, in Saint Martin (whose sovereignty is shared by France and the Netherlands), and another ten or more in the British islands of Turks and Caicos and in Tortola.
According to the undersecretariat of State, the collaboration of the Dutch authorities has allowed evacuating a Spanish family from Saint Martin, where there have been outbreaks of violence due to the shortage of food.
As for the Spaniards affected by the hurricane in the United States and Cuba (where there are around 1,500 tourists), Larrotcha pointed out that “their basic and primary needs are covered”. In both countries, she declared, “commercial flights are operating” and the “situation is completely different to that in Saint Martin, where there are no basic infrastructures to take care of our nationals”.
An Airbus of the Army left yesterday with humanitarian aid and to repatriate the Spaniards that are in Saint Martin
In relation to the Spanish physiotherapist Lorena Enebral Pérez, murdered on Monday at a health centre of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Mazar-e-Sharif, in the north of Afghanistan, Larrotcha stated that the Government is in “contact with the family” and it is “working in close collaboration and coordination with Red Cross” for her repatriation.
“It can be confirmed that the body of the aid worker will arrive today (referring to yesterday) to Kabul”, she continued. “Always in collaboration with the Embassy and Red Cross, the appropriate steps are being taken for her repatriation to Spain to take place as soon as possible”, she added.
