London, United Kingdom.- UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Rennie Raab on Tuesday thanked the Cuban government for permitting the cruise ship with coronavirus cases to dock there, and for helping passengers and crew return to UK.

¨I spoke twice with the Cuban Foreign Minister over the weekend, and we are very grateful to the Cuban government for rapidly allowing this operation to be effective, and also for its close cooperation to guarantee its success,¨ Raab said at UK Parliament.

Dominic Rennie Raab was referring to the MS Braemar case, a UK-based Fred Olsen Cruise Line company, to which several nations blocked the vessel from disembarking at several Caribbean ports due to fears of passengers with possible Covid-19 symptoms on board.

In this regard, Raab restated the UK is working hard with the Cuban authorities to ensure all Britain citizens can return to UK quickly and safely.

¨We are doing our best to guarantee passengers to return to UK on chapter flights from José Martí International Airport, in next 48 hours,¨ he said.

The Norwegian-owned cruise shipping line reported, for its part, that at 15:00 local time in UK, MS Braemar cruise ship was five nautical miles from Havana, and once planes on which passengers will be evacuated arrive in Cuba, then the vessel will be docked.