France transit/quarantine requirements are unfair

[Prochainesortie]

I know 5 families currently in relatively Covid safe European families (Eg Germany, Poland etc) visiting their own families who will now have to quarantine due to transiting France for a few hours and using the Eurotunnel. They won’t stay the night in France just refuel once due to driving distances, they won’t exit the car in the eurotunnel. 1 is my cleaner and she is panicking about no income on return. She doesn’t have online shopping and her children won’t be allowed out of her small flat to exercise for 14 days! The only reason she drove was to be safer and avoid airports! I think the U.K. government is unreasonable given France is such a transit country. More notice should have been given and they need to relax the transit requirements urgently. I agree that spending the night in France might increase the risk but 1-2 refuel/stop should be allowed as long as masks/sanitiser etc are used. My cleaner is driving in a big car with another family, I told her to look into driving through Germany for longer/carrying some fuel if possible. Hopefully she will find a way to avoid the quarantine legally by not having to stop.

Well as a key worker she should have planned before leaving the country what would happen if quarantine rules where introduced as she knew she was due back at work
OR
She can do as many other EU citizens are doing and turn her back on the UK and leave us to clean our own school toilets ..........

My friend is Canadian, she went to Mexico at the end of February for 6 weeks and it still stuck there!

@lunar1 How has she not been able to return to Canada?

Less unreasonable than including the Canary Islands in the Spanish quarantine though.

OP I'm sorry that some people have given you a hard time on this thread. Your cleaner sounds very responsible and you sound like a very considerate employer.

it's all very stressful at the moment.

Have some from me.

@UntamedWisteria - thank you. My cleaner is lovely and dedicated and her almost 7 year old DD lives in Poland with her mum. She had to go to see her too. It had been almost 6 months, so hard for her. I am really sad about the current divisions in the U.K. due to Brexit and now Covid. I know other European keyworkers working for the NHS, care system, some doctors/nurses/midwives. They have all needed to go home this summer for their own mental health. I know covid is hard and divisive but I am afraid it is true that many of these people are going home for good now. I also spent two weeks this summer with my family in Switzerland. The atmosphere there is not as divisive and it seems more common sense amongst politicians and the general population prevails. There is also not this big divide between Covid gospel followers and those that seemingly don’t care at all that seems prevalent here. Let’s hope we can get ourselves out of this mess (I am dual national by the way, from birth and have lived in several countries).

no sympathy, unless someone had to travel for a funeral or something unmissable. It's their choice to travel abroad in these uncertain times!

gingganggooleywotsit OP did say earlier on My cleaner did go home for a funeral, it was essential travel.

I’ll save my sympathy for the families of those who have died, for those who are living with the long term effects of Covid, and for those who are yet to become infected and die because Susan from Surrey simply couldn’t survive without a booze cruise to Reims.

ODFOD

I'm sorry I didn't see that. That's completely different then. I just feel a bit irritated by people who went for a nice holiday and then complained about the quarantine. It's pretty obvious that this would happen.

@Mintychoc1

This is one of the reasons I’ve never wanted to move abroad. When the shit hits the fan, you’re a boat/plane journey from your loved ones.

A lot of people move due to economic necessity.

I agree with a couple of other posters regarding her travelling with another family - she broke the rules straight away!

@TW2013

gingganggooleywotsit OP did say earlier on My cleaner did go home for a funeral, it was essential travel.

For a relative who died in May so as sad as it is I wouldn’t say it was easential

@drumandthebass - my cleaner travelled with her brother’s family. They all live together in South East London. It isn’t breaking the rules, nor was that even the point. They are one household. It is so weird - I ask a general question about stopping off in France and clarification of the rules which are not that clear. Some posters make helpful suggestions so I have learnt a lot eg vary the route via Aachen/Germany, look into pay with card at petrol pump/drive straight through in France etc. Many others nit pick information provided or make the whole debate about whether my cleaner is trying to avoid quarantine and whether that is moral/how people should generally act during Covid, nobody should travel, all keyworkers should be martyr type discussion. Anyway the thread has been somewhat helpful in that my cleaner has decided she is flying back from Poland directly as she is too worried about crossing quarantine countries even if she sticks to the rules.

What many posters also seem to miss is the blatant point that employers are going to be less sympathetic if you have to quarantine coming home from an exempt home country (for example Germany) because you had to stop on your way in France or Belgium very briefly because you happened to have not understood the “rules”. Let’s hope the U.K. government wakes up and follows Germany’s more organised track&trace and test on entry model.

Let’s hope the U.K. government wakes up and follows Germany’s more organised track&trace and test on entry model.
In your dreams

The rules are prejudicial towards Europeans visiting family

While I can understand you trying to help, your cleaner, you are being very unreasonable here.

We are all affected by the rules. I haven't been able to see my (UK) family since lockdown started (first whole family gathering for years was cancelled).

Anyone travelling abroad at this point understands that there are risks of changes to quarantine rules - it's been emphasised many times.

I told her to look into driving through Germany for longer/carrying some fuel if possible.

Are you offering to pay her extra expenses since your only concern seems to be that you will be without a cleaner when she quarantines ?
I find it hard to believe that your cleaner has contacted you to discuss this when she is away on holiday.

Zero sympathy! I know of so many people who have been unable to attend funerals of loved ones but who accepted this as part of a wider global tragedy. A dear friend committed suicide in April and we had to watch the funeral via a live link. How idiotic to travel at this time. I miss my family terribly, they live abroad but there is such a thing as personal and collective responsibility.

One friend did go to France camping because everywhere in the UK was fully booked and double the price.

That's not true, we have been camping several times this summer each booked at the last minute and at the normal price that we pay each year, maybe £1 or so more to allow for inflation. We paid between £6 and £20 a night per tent. We are doing another last minute booking for the end of next week over the bank holiday.

[quote Prochainesortie]@Friendsoftheearth- my cleaner went back to Poland to mourn the loss of her grandmother with the rest of her family in August. They are Catholics. Say their prayers in a small family community with her brother there too who was previously also stuck in the U.K. Of course many people did not get to say goodbye in person to their elderly but doesn’t stop them meeting up once it is allowed in whatever group size is allowed to mourn their loved ones. My cleaner is trying to follow the rules! The transit rules are not that clear. Her English isn’t good enough to read through pages of government waffle.[/quote]
The sensible thing would be not to have gone. I was supposed to travel to Australia for a funeral but I decided it wasn't worth the risk of being stranded there or having to quarantine on return. Therefore I made the decision not to go, thankfully I did or I would still be there and in Victoria to boot whilst my children were here. Anybody travelling abroad is being irresponsible.

OP sorry you had such hard time over this.
We travel that route frequently and definitely recommend going through Germany and crossing by Aachen, then up towards Ghent. Depending on how big their car is, fill up just before the border crossing or along the E40. Depending on where they cross into France, they shouldn’t need to fill up there and if for some reason they do, a lot of the stations are ‘pay at pump’.
Hope your cleaner has an ok journey back.

I don't really have any sympathy. It was silly to travel. I get shes seeing family but plenty of people who haven't seen family since Christmas. My grandparents are shielding. I saw them at Christmas (they live several hours away). As shielding ended my area went in to local lockdown. So I still can't see them. I may never see them.again.

People can moan and whinge as much as they like about it not being fair and all the rest, but need to recognise that if they don't follow the advice we will have the most enormous problem again, and it may be their family that bears the brunt of it this time.

It was horrific watching the death toll go up and up in April, and the trauma, the pain and the loss so many suffered. It was just a few months ago, so should still be fresh in the minds of everyone that lives in the UK. We can not go back to that, so whatever the inconvenience, loss of liberty, cancelled holidays all of that is such a small price to pay to try and limit the spread the suffering.

Next time it could be you or your parent, or loved one.

There's a pandemic at the moment. It's what has to happen to try and deal with it. It doesn't matter what the circumstances of someone going are. It's not a punishment, it's to try to stop the spread of a potentially dangerous virus.

Trashtara that's your grandparents. OPs cleaner went to see her child.
Bit of a difference.