‘Quarantined’ Brits face no temperature checks and can take public transport

Travellers returning to the England have hit out at the Government’s two-week quarantine policy, claiming that immigration officials even joked that they should not have come home.

Arrivals are allowed to get on public transport after leaving the airport, and questions are now being raised about hand washing, social distancing and mask wearing inside airports – as well as whether border control officers understand the new rules.

Speaking exclusively to Metro.co.uk, three returning Brits have explained how they were able to walk on to the Underground, trains and take taxis following international flights into London Heathrow – despite the Government asking people to self isolate at home after entering the country. The policy forces arrivals on planes, ferries and trains to provide their onward journey plans and contact details or face a fine – though there is a long list of exemptions.

One couple returning from the Philippines in June said there were ‘absolutely no checks of our temperature, nor any restrictions on our movement around the terminal… We could use the water fountain to fill up our water bottle and use the toilets.’

The pair, who are remaining anonymous and got on the Tube and train after arriving, continued: ‘No one sanitised our hands at any point and most people were not wearing face masks, including the border control.’ 

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Immigration officials were sat behind screens, but some were not wearing masks, they said, adding: ‘On reaching the immigration officer, she joked that statements from the government were changing all the time, so people are confused about what to do, including border control. 

‘She said we should have stayed where we had come from as the UK was a much riskier place to be.’

The quarantine policy was introduced early last month, but evidence suggests that the virus first entered the UK in January. Some 18 million people and more than 1,300 cases of Covid-19 thought to have been brought into the country in the early stages of the outbreak. 

Paul Haugh, from South Wales, arrived home on June 8 — the first day the quarantine was implemented — and stresses that he believes the idea is ‘well intentioned’ and good ‘in principle’. 

But, he said he had ‘no idea’ why the Government waited ‘so long’ to implement the policy and that mass testing for international arrivals or time slots for pre-booked public transport could be better alternatives.

The policy has been widely criticised for endangering jobs and being implemented too late.

Mr Haugh, an English as a second language teacher, flew in from Bahrain via the Philippines with his girlfriend, before she flew on to Portugal. He then took the Heathrow Express to central London and a train back to Wales before getting in a taxi home.

The 28-year-old told Metro.co.uk: ‘The practical application, by allowing those who are presumed infected and those who have just arrived from a potentially infected international flight(s), out into the public and onto public transport so they can return to their homes is just as bad as telling them they’re free to do whatever.’

He branded possible fines of £1,000 for breaking the rules ‘very good and acceptable’ and said he experienced airport staff using gloves, masks and antibacterial spray at Heathrow and enforcing social distancing.

But the only people he saw in masks ‘were the police and a handful of airport staff’, including one border control agent, while no temperature checks in place – though he did see a thermal scanner.

Mr Haugh also added: ‘No one contacted me to check if I was staying at home. 

‘I think while (the policy) could be implemented more rigorously and handled a bit better by both the health secretary and local officials, the actual idea is a good one and does work and so restrictions should have been implemented immediately, back in January.’

The other couple say they were phoned by officials but suggested the Philippines had a far better system in place. Other countries have far stricter measures in place for arriving air passengers.

They said that at the border control entrance — where people are told about what they need to do to go through to immigration — ‘there was no social distancing’. 

Slamming the ‘lax attitude’ to the virus in the UK, they said they got into a ‘huge queue’ at border control ‘where some people did not socially distance themselves from others’.

Comparing their arrival and departure destinations, they added: ‘It seemed quite a shock after the strict regime and enforcement in the Philippines… (where) travel between islands was restricted and you needed a medical certificate from a health clinic, approval of your travel plans by the local tourism office and permission from the police before you were allowed to transit between islands. 

‘To enter any place of public gathering like a shopping mall and most restaurants they would take your temperature with a small handheld gun and spray your hands with an alcohol based sanitiser.’

A Government spokesperson said: ‘It’s important to remember what these measures are all about – protecting public health, avoiding a second peak of this deadly virus and that means managing the risk of cases being imported from abroad.

‘They are informed by science, backed by the public and will keep us all safe.

‘A range of measures, such as guidance on social distancing and the requirement to wear a face covering on public transport, are in place to further prevent transmission of the virus.’

Brits — who will be able to avoid quarantine after going to destinations deemed safe from July 6 —  must wear a face covering on public transport. However, the Government believes temperature checks hold ‘limited clinical value’.

Metro.co.uk has contacted Heathrow Airport for comment. 

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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