A VENTNOR family faces being turfed out on to the streets of India with nowhere to go — during a strict coronavirus lockdown.

Karen Penn, Ben Sampler and their 11-year-old daughter Mariella have made a desperate appeal to anyone who can help and have urged people to contact Isle of Wight MP Bob Seely about their plight.

The couple, both teachers, left Ventnor in August for a new life, working as volunteer NGOs teaching maths and music to students in an international boarding school in Tamil Nadu.

Ben had emergency spinal surgery on February 7 at KMCH hospital in Coimbatore but two weeks later got an infection and had to have further surgery on March 4.

He has been in hospital on strong intravenous antibiotics since, and having physio to help him walk straight. He has been declared fit to travel and is imminently due for discharge.

The hospital can arrange police or ambulance escort to an airport but there are no flights. The flight the family was booked on has been cancelled.

Karen said: “If we are asked to leave hospital on discharge without an escort to airport and a valid flight ticket, Prime Minister Modi has made it clear that detainment and enforcement will happen as it breaks all new lockdown laws in place.

“There are 30 others at the school we were working at but they are three hours away, we cannot get to them and there is talk of this campus becoming one of the ‘facilities’ for Covid-19 cases.

“It is a remote area 10,000ft up on top of the Nilgris mountains with no respirators in the district.”

Another Island family is at the school — Giles, Anna, Libby and Josh Hurst, of Wroxall.

Both families are desperate to get home.

The County Press has contacted Bob Seely.

More to follow.

UPDATE 8.50am:

Bob Seely said: “Clearly, I am very concerned about Islanders, and any Britons, who are trapped overseas. I am trying to get in touch with them this morning as soon as I heard about this case.

"The Foreign Secretary is talking to the G20 and G7 today (international forums to enable governments around the world to communicate) to enable Brits to return from countries they are trapped in. 

"I will make sure the Foreign Office will do all it can to repatriate Karen, Ben and Mariella once I have the details of this case.”

UPDATE 12.40pm

Mr Seely said: "I talked to Ben and Karen less than an hour ago. Ben is still in hospital.

"Ben and Karen’s case is a potentially serious one and we are talking to both minsters and officials today to make sure that they are prioritised."