Senior Whitehall sources say that if the crisis spirals out of control, British citizens who want to come back will be offered airline tickets.
If necessary, they will also be given transport to get to airports, probably by the British Army.
There are an estimated 60,000 British expatriates in Cyprus and 3,000 British soldiers based there.
The military may rescue up to 60,000 expats as the island faces financial meltdown
The latest proposal will see people with more than €100,000 (about £85,000) in the Bank of Cyprus lose 20 per cent of their money. Savers with more than €100,000 in any other bank will pay four per cent. Last weekend’s proposal to raid all bank accounts on the island – as revealed by The Mail on Sunday last week – was dropped amid public and international outrage.
The new scheme has been approved by the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, known jointly as the Troika. The levy is needed to raise €5.8billion (£4.9bn) as Cyprus’s contribution to the bail-out. The EU is expected to provide a further €10billion (£8.5bn) to rescue Cyprus’s struggling banks. The European Central Bank had said it would pull the plug on Cyprus banks on Tuesday morning without a deal.
With limits placed on withdrawals from cash
machines, many residents ¿ including some Britons on the island ¿ are
running dangerously short of cash
As part of its bail-out plan, the Cyprus
Parliament passed laws on Friday to stop significant amounts of money
being removed from the country
Whitehall officials refused to discuss details of the contingency plan for ex-pats, but a well-placed source said: ‘We are confident we will not need to put this plan into action. But clearly, we have to be ready to help British citizens in all circumstances, wherever they are in the world.’
The Mail on Sunday understands there have been detailed talks between Downing Street, the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Office on the plan to airlift Britons.
‘This is something we have been looking at for a considerable period of time,’ said one insider. ‘We have been aware for many months that there was a possibility of something like this happening in Cyprus and we have taken the appropriate and prudent measures to prepare for it.
‘If British people cannot get their own money and want to come home, we have to help.’
The introduction of so-called ¿capital controls¿
was seen as essential to stop cash flooding out of the country when
banks re-open on Tuesday
Whitehall’s secret airlift plan includes arranging extra commercial flights and paying for airline tickets for Britons who wish to return home but who cannot get hold of cash or use their credit cards to pay for them. It is not known whether they will be expected to repay the Government when they reach the UK.
The detailed plans even cover the possibility that British subjects won’t be able to get to the airport if they cannot pay for transport or petrol for their cars. It is thought the British Army will lay on transport.
As part of its bail-out plan, the Cyprus Parliament passed laws on Friday to stop significant amounts of money being removed from the country.
The introduction of so-called ‘capital controls’ was seen as essential to stop cash flooding out of the country when banks re-open on Tuesday. The levy and the block on taking money off the island will hit all residents, including British citizens, and thousands of Russians in Cyprus and in Russia who have billions of euros deposited in Cyprus banks.
The island has become a haven for wealthy Russians amid allegations that much of the Russian money is illegal.
The threat of a raid on its citizens’ cash prompted Russia last week to consider helping Cyprus bail out its banks in exchange for access to gas reserves off the Cyprus coast.
Cyprus’ finance minister Michalis Sarris held talks in Russia late last week but returned empty-handed.
Without the backing of the Troika for the new bail-out plan, the ECB had warned it would cut off emergency support for Cyprus’s banks, which would have left the banks bust, plunged the island into further chaos and driven Cyprus out of the euro.
ATMs are running on empty, nobody will take my cards - and I'm down to my last 64 euros
Fears: Lesly Sutton and her rescued pets
She gave it up – the parties, the exotic holidays, the 4x4 and her luxury home – for a more humble existence in Cyprus. Now, 12 years on, there can be few expats on the blighted island who are suffering more because of the banking crisis.
Lesley, who runs an animal sanctuary in the mountains above Limassol, is down to her last 64 euros. Before the crisis, many of her 15 dogs and 20 cats were sponsored – 20 euros a month each – and that, supplemented by cleaning work, was her chief source of income.
‘It’s drying up because people haven’t now got the money to sponsor animals. Who can blame them?
At the moment I’ve got 50 euros in my purse and just 14 in the bank and that, sadly, is it,’ she said.
‘I am worried about feeding the animals. As it is, some of the dogs are, like me, living on pasta.’
Whatever the outcome of rescue talks, the crisis has already dealt an irreparable blow to Lesley’s livelihood – and that of many other Britons in Cyprus. Some expressed fears yesterday that they are days away from closing their businesses.
And growing numbers are said to be preparing to return to Britain.
The past 48 hours has seen a vicious circle develop. Banks are running out of cash, yet small business suppliers, supermarkets and petrol stations are refusing to accept credit cards. For many, this has overtaken the ever-growing limits on ATM withdrawals as their biggest concern.
‘It’s cash or nothing now,’ explained Briton Angela Rose, who runs a pet grooming business in Larnaca. ‘Like lots of others I know who own small businesses, suppliers are demanding cash rather than post-dated cheques, which they have always been happy with in the past.
‘It is this more than anything that is stifling business and making it hard to get by. I’ll have to close down in a couple of days; I can’t go on like this.’
Others spoke of angry scenes as customers try to pay with credit cards.
‘There have been plenty of tears, screaming and shouting and, I’m told, even scuffles breaking out.
It’s mayhem,’ said builder Peter Scrimgeour who moved to Cyprus from Exeter nine years ago.
‘People fill up their cars, go to pay with a credit card and then find that they aren’t accepted.’
With time running out for Cyprus, the island’s 60,000 expatriates face a nerve-racking few days.
Some Britons with foresight switched their savings to UK accounts several months ago and now those with the means to do so, many retired, are making plans to sell their properties and return home.
However, the vast majority, particularly those without financial interests in Britain, simply cannot afford to go.
‘Things have got increasingly desperate over the last 48 hours and I am fearful of what will happen next,’ said Ms Rose, 39.
‘My business has come to a standstill, no one is coming through the door and I am having to tell my staff not to come in. I can’t see how I am going to pay them. And I certainly don’t have the money to move back to the UK.’
Neither does Lesley Sutton, whose husband Terry, a builder, died last year. Lesley, from Essex, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer last year. But she is more concerned about her animals’ ailments and paying her vet’s bill.
‘I am having some treatment soon, paid for by a friend. We shall have to see what happens,’ she said.
UKIP leader Nigel Farage yesterday called for Cyprus to leave the euro. ‘The human suffering caused by the euro-thugs has shown that for Cyprus, like the other indebted countries, the best thing to do is leave the single currency.
‘The perceived benefits of joining have long since passed and there is no trust left,’ he said.
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