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Agence France-Presse

French President Emmanuel Macron and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson travelled on Tuesday to the hurricane-hit Caribbean, rebuffing criticism over the relief efforts as European countries boost aid to their devastated island territories.
Macron’s plane touched down in Saint Martin as anger grew over looting and lawlessness in the French-Dutch territory after Hurricane Irma.
“He needs to come to look around, so that he realises the horror here,” local resident Peggy Brun said.
Speaking in Guadeloupe earlier, Macron said the government began preparing “one of the biggest airlifts since World War II” days before Irma hit on Wednesday.
“Now is not the time for controversy,” he said, adding: “Returning life to normal is the absolute priority.”
The French, British and Dutch governments have faced criticism for failing to anticipate the disaster, with an editorial in The Telegraph newspaper calling the response “appallingly slow”.
Touring Saint Martin, Macron was at times jeered by people waiting for aid supplies or hoping to catch flights for France to escape the devastation across the island.
“We’ve been here since six in the morning and we’re still waiting, under a blazing sun,” said one woman in a crowd of people hoping to leave as soon as possible.
Another woman asked: “Why are you here?”
But Macron said that “everybody who wants to leave will be able to,” with officials saying that about 2,000 of the 35,000 residents on the French side of Saint Martin had already left in recent days.
Also on Tuesday, police officials said that commercial flights would resume on Wednesday at the Saint Barthelemy airport.
Johnson arrived on Tuesday in Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados, where he met with some of the nearly 1,000 military personnel sent to bolster relief efforts and security. He was also expected to visit the British Virgin Islands and Anguilla.
“The UK is going to be with you for the long term,” Johnson had told residents in a video message.
He has dismissed the criticism as “completely unjustified,” calling the relief effort “unprecedented.”
King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands is already in the region, which bore the brunt of one of the most powerful storms on record.
He toured Sint Maarten, the Dutch section of the island, on Monday, before meeting residents on Saba island Tuesday. He was set to travel on to Sint Eustatius, which suffered severe damage.
The Dutch Red Cross has raised €3.2 million (US$3.8 million) for the devastated islands in under a week.
Dutch Major-General Richard Oppelaar said 200 tonnes of aid had been delivered, while 750 people have been evacuated from Sint Maarten.
“The security situation remains precarious, but seems to steadily be improving,” he said. “We are trying our best to act in situations [of looting], and have had several people detained.”
A detention centre at Point Blanche that holds about 130 prisoners was badly damaged but no detainees escaped, Dutch officials said.
British junior foreign minister Alan Duncan said 100 prisoners escaped in the British Virgin Islands during the hurricane.
The death toll from Irma stood at more than 40.
Fifteen were killed on Saint Martin and neighbouring Saint Barthelemy, 10 in Cuba, nine in the British Caribbean islands, four in the US Virgin Islands, two in Puerto Rico, one in Barbuda and one in Haiti.
Islanders have complained of a breakdown in law and order and widespread shortages of food, water and electricity.
A mother picking up her daughter, a survivor who flew to Paris on Monday, said government help was non-existent on Saint Martin.
“They gave us phone numbers but they didn’t work. Only social media and solidarity worked,” said the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“People were left to their own devices. They had to set up militias and take turns defending themselves” against looters, she said. “All the gangs came to the French side ... with guns and machetes. It’s unbelievably chaotic.”
Briton Claudia Knight said her partner Leo Whitting, 38, was stranded on Tortola, one of the British Virgin Islands.
“Everyone’s turned feral and no one’s going out without being armed ... It’s turning really nasty,” she told the Press Association news agency. “Leo carries a knife with him.”
The Dutch king spoke of his horror at what he found.
“Even from the plane I saw something I have never seen before,” he told public broadcaster NOS. “I have seen proper war as well as natural disasters before, but I’ve never seen anything like this.”
The British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean are highly dependent on aid, making them what The Times called “an expensive legacy of empire”.
In France, opposition figures have accused Macron’s fledgling government of bungling the response to the disaster.
Radical leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon has called for a parliamentary inquiry and far-right leader Marine Le Pen said the government had left islanders to “fend for themselves”. There has also been criticism of the Dutch response.
“They reacted far too late. The French were much quicker on Saint Martin to evacuate people,” tourist Kitty Algra told Dutch newspaper AD.


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Hurricane Irma

Macron and Johnson defy stormy reception to visit hurricane-hit Caribbean

French President Emmanuel Macron (centre) shakes hands with residents during a visit to the French Caribbean island of St Martin on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Britain's State Secretary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Boris Johnson attends an informal meeting of European Union Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Tallinn, Estonia September 7, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

France's President Emmanuel Macron walks down a destroyed building during his visit to the French Caribbean island of St. Martin September 12, 2017. REUTERS/Christophe Ena/Pool

A handout picture released by the British Ministry of Defence (MOD) on September 12, 2017 shows Royal Marines from Alpha Company, 40 Commando carrying disaster relief supplies after landing on the island of Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands on September 11, 2017 following the passing of Hurricane Irma. Britons left stranded on Caribbean islands devastated by Hurricane Irma said Britain's response had been faulty, but Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on September 11 called the criticism "completely unjustified". Britain has pledged £32 million (35 million euros, $42 million) in aid and sent hundreds of troops, supplies and rescue equipment on several flights to the British territories in the Caribbean since Friday. There are around 88,000 Britons living in the region. / AFP PHOTO / MOD / Capt George EATWELL / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT " AFP PHOTO / CROWN COPYRIGHT 2017 / MOD / CPT GEORGE EATWELL " - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A S

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