I don't understand what went through their heads. They were being put up in a hotel with everything laid on, and being paid plenty for a few days' work on condition that they didn't go wandering about in between. It's explained to them quite clearly that this is important and will be strictly enforced. So pretty much the first thing they decide to do on stepping foot in this other country is exactly the one thing they were told they mustn't do. And there are consequences! Who knew?
Do we really want people that stupid wandering about in times of pandemic? Sadly I suspect they're in the majority. I think a lot of it has to do with people not taking COVID seriously. If it were a gang of lads over from Nigeria bringing Ebola I doubt the papers would be quite so sorry for them. You say they didn't commit murder? Well, effectively if they're bringing a killer virus to an unprotected population that's exactly what they're doing. For a bottle of beer and a sandwich (which they didn't even need). Is it OK if they knock an old lady on the head for their lunch? Of course not. Ridiculous comparison? Yes. But it's also ridiculous to say they were "imprisoned for buying a sandwich". They were imprisoned for, I say again, potentially spreading a killer virus. Because take it seriously or not, it does kill people. And they didn't care. And for that they only got two weeks. Did you read two weeks or two years, along with failing to note the IOM is not the UK? They got two weeks. That's nothing. That's as long as I spent imprisoned in my own house for the crime of having a cough. (Which I doubt was the COVID, but my manager said let's not take a chance.) I felt fine after a couple of days but I still didn't go anywhere, because you're not supposed to. Obviously if it had been life or death I'd have done it, but it wasn't. And I wasn't even paid extra to stay in.
No, I don't get this sympathy for the twits at all. They're not even being severely punished. All this "their life is over!" hyperbole - ridiculous. That little old lady they could have given the virus to (directly or indirectly) in pursuit of their unnecessary lunch, her life would be over. Theirs just got a bit more complicated, because they didn't think before rocking off and pleasing themselves, despite being given plenty of warning. Sometimes a visit to Tesco is just that, other times it really isn't.