Some of first UK evacuees regret leaving Wuhan in 2020

Matt Raw, among the first group of UK citizens evacuated from Wuhan last year, regrets returning and wished he had "never got on that flight", as reported by the BBC on Feb 1, 2021.

Raw went back with his wife Ying and his mother on Jan 31, 2020, when he was told by the UK government that family members were welcome to join their spouses last year. However, now he feels he was "duped" and "brought here under false pretences".

He said that the UK authorities lied to them in claiming they would be safe in the UK, stating "we would have been safer and much more freer if we stayed in China." He said locking down the cities was the right thing to do.

Another Londoner, Raw's fellow passenger Liping Duan, says she remembers having misgivings about the safety of the flight itself: "I couldn't breathe properly and it was exhausting."

Raw said he cannot return to Wuhan because his mother has dementia and the strict quarantine procedures that are in place for entering China would be too difficult for her.

"Here, we have my little house and my little fish pond in the Cheshire countryside, but we're trapped here."