“We don’t know how long we will be stuck” - Northampton teen stranded in Peru after volunteering with children during her gap year

A teenager who had been volunteering in Peru for almost two months is now stranded as the country is in lockdown.

Rachel Wyss, from West Haddon, went to the South American country earlier this year to volunteer with and help children.

The 19-year-old was then intending to travel around the country before going on to Nashville to work at Camp America.

She was due to return to Northampton in September, but she is now trying to find a way to get home.

Rachel said: “It all happened very quickly.

“I heard they would shut the borders last weekend, but I thought it would be fine.

“Then the President announced a national lockdown. We have to stay in and we’re only allowed to leave the house once a day.

“Luckily I’m in a volunteer house shared with ten others and we all moved in together. We’ve got a garden and a terrace, a lot of people here don’t have any of that.

“We’ve been locked in for just over a week.”

The Government has already put on a repatriation flight from Lima earlier this week, as according to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, there is around 1,000 British nationals in Peru.

Rachel was not among those contacted to get on this week's flight.

She added: “There was a flight earlier this week that took people from Lima.

“It came out of nowhere and we’ve not had any news for about three days other than apologising for us not being on the flight.

“We don’t know when our flight will be. It’s still very much up in the air.”

Along with several other British nationals, Rachel is currently isolated in Huanchaco, which is eight hours north of Lima, the capital of Peru where repatriation flights are leaving from.

As they are not allowed to leave the house and need a permit to travel via bus or taxi, Rachel is unsure how they would get to Lima or how else they could fly home.

She said: “It’s a bizarre situation. I haven’t really had time to process it, it happened so quickly and we thought it would blow over.

“I’m in a safe place with other British nationals, but it’s scary that we could be stuck.

“We need to get out when we can otherwise we don’t know how long we will be stuck here for.”

The Government is already working with authorities in Peru to bring British nationals home and the first repatriation flight landed yesterday morning (March 26).

A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: "We are pleased that the first repatriation flight for British people from Peru landed in the UK this morning and thank the Peruvian Government for their support.

"We are working urgently with the Peruvian authorities, international governments and airlines to organise more flights and continue to prioritise places for the most vulnerable. Our staff are supporting hundreds of British people across Peru."

The office has requested further flights to bring British nationals home, as well as domestic transfers in the coming days.