Dear people of Tenerife,
Greetings from Geneva. It is Tedros again.
Our work in Tenerife is done. And it was done with grace.
Last Monday, I stood at the port of Granadilla de Abona and watched the last of the passengers from the MV Hondius board the vehicles that would carry them home. I watched health workers in protective equipment move with calm professionalism. I watched Spanish officials coordinate with quiet precision. And I watched and felt your support and solidarity.
And I thought of the letter I wrote to you just days ago, and how everything that your Spanish Government and the World Health Organization promised came to pass, exactly as described.
More than 120 people from 23 countries have safely disembarked and are now being cared for and monitored by public health professionals while in transit or upon arrival in their home countries. They arrived in fear and uncertainty. They left carrying something they could not have expected to find in Tenerife: the dignity of being cared for by strangers from your community, and people around the world, who chose to help. The risk assessment held. The protocols worked. The corridor held. Science and solidarity operated in coordination, as they must, as they can, when we trust each other.
But I do not want this moment to be remembered only as a logistical success. What happened here in Tenerife was something rarer than competence. It was moral courage, the willingness of an entire island, an entire nation, to say: these are human beings, and we will not turn away from them.
The government of Prime Minister Sánchez honoured its obligations under international law and then went beyond them, with warmth, speed and care. Ministers Mónica García, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and Ángel Víctor Torres led with great commitment. The port authorities of Granadilla executed a complex operation flawlessly. The health teams who boarded that ship, who stood at the port gates, who rode in those vehicles: they did their jobs not because it was easy, but because it was right.
To Captain Jan Dobrogowski and his 26-member crew still onboard of the MV Hondius and sailing now to the Netherlands: you held your passengers together through weeks of grief and confinement. History will not forget that.
To you, the people of Tenerife, who opened your island not with applause or fanfare but with quiet, steady acceptance: I want you to know what that means to the world. You may never meet the passengers and crew who transited your port. But those 150 people and their families know that somewhere in the Atlantic, there was an island community that said “yes.” That community was you.
We live in a time when it is easy to close doors, to turn inward, to let fear harden into hostility. Tenerife chose differently. You have written something into the record of how humanity responds to crisis, and the WHO will carry that record forward.
Three people died in connection with the outbreak on the Hondius. Their families are grieving. The conclusion of this operation does not erase that grief, and I do not want it to. Behind every public health response there are real lives, real losses and real families who will carry this forever.
We also learned of the loss of a member of the Guardia Civil of Tenerife, who died of a heart attack while serving during this operation. He was here because of duty and commitment to his community. I extend my deepest condolences to his family, his colleagues, and to the entire Guardia Civil. His service will not be forgotten.
The best immunity we have is solidarity. Tenerife has proven this, not as a slogan, but as a way to work, and to live.
I will confess something personal. Last Monday, before the last group of passengers departed, I walked through part of your city, alone. The island was going about its day, and I found Tenerife to be genuinely beautiful: the place, yes, but above all the people. The warmth I encountered from some people who recognised me, even in the briefest exchanges, stayed with me.
I wish I had come under different circumstances, on a WHO conference perhaps, or better still, simply with my family to rest. That is a wish I intend to honour. I look forward to returning to Tenerife as a visitor, not as a crisis responder, to see it the way it deserves to be seen, slowly and without urgency, with my family beside me.
On behalf of the World Health Organization, on behalf of the passengers now home, and on behalf of those families around the world who watched this island with hope: thank you. From the depth of my heart, thank you.
I also want to thank my colleagues from WHO headquarters and from our Regional Office for Europe in Copenhagen, who stood with me in Tenerife, and those who supported us tirelessly from afar. This was a team effort in every sense of the word.
But for us, the job is not yet done, until every passenger and crew is out of quarantine and reunited with their loved ones.
With profound respect, admiration and gratitude,
Tedros
Editor’s note
The statement has been corrected to reflect that the three people confirmed to have died as a result of the hantavirus outbreak did not all die on the ship. Only two people died onboard, while the third died upon arrival in South Africa.
