Great Britain - Closes the destination of dreams. An airlift to escape London

The doors are not yet completely closed and Alitalia continued to guarantee at least one daily flight for repatriation or emergency travel on the London-Rome route, the only air link that remained operational between the island and the peninsula. But those who wanted to return to a large extent did so, frightened by the initial hesitations of the British government in facing the coronavirus pandemic and above all by the nightmare of not being able to carry on across the Channel in a panorama of frozen if not dead job prospects.
The estimates indicate that more than 5,000 have taken advantage of the airline's airlift in a few days.
Not only students - writes the digital newspaper 'London, Italy' - but also seasonal workers, mostly employed in closed or empty bars, hotels or restaurants. And then young professionals.
This is the case of Amanda, a lawyer, who has decided to anticipate the return to Italy for a few months. "In September I will start a new job in Milan and we thought we were moving in August - his story at ANSA -. But I preferred to get closer to my parents who live in the Marche, so here you don't work anymore." This is not yet a mass escape, since compatriots in the Kingdom are approximately 700 thousand (mostly residents of London, where the community has the size of the fifth or sixth Italian city per population). But the flow is significant and testifies to the anxieties and fears of those who found themselves experiencing this far-away health emergency. Rediscovering himself suddenly - in many cases - even without a job, due to the lockdown that the United Kingdom finally had to adopt.
In spite of the suspension of flights by all the other carriers, the repatriations were also insured by Alitalia, at the request of the Farnesina and with the coordination of the Embassy of Italy. One take-off per day, now, authorized by local authorities from Heathrow airport towards Fiumicino. "It was not easy at all, but we managed to create an operational bridge to repatriate thousands of fellow citizens - the words of Raffaele Trombetta, Italian ambassador to London -. The requests for return continue to be numerous, while we also try to guarantee assistance to those who has chosen to stay. "