In the news day, just unbelievable

[vegas888]

Thousands of passengers from coronavirus hotspots such as Iran, Italy and even China are flying into Britain, despite the government’s domestic lockdown.

Flights have been arriving in London from Beijing and Rome every day, while Iran Air is operating three flights a week from Tehran.

The revelation follows a decision by the EU last week to ban virtually all travellers from outside the bloc for 30 days.

How are repatriation flights WITHOUT enforced quarantine acceptable??

If this is true it’s absolutely shocking and tbh if you’ve made your life in another country you should stay there till it’s over.

Pissing myself at the decent newspaper comment

The flights from Italy aren't going to be Italian tourists deciding that it would be nice to have a city break in London, OP. Some flights are continuing because people are being repatriated, or because goods have to be moved, medical staff or journalists have to move or because airport slots have to be kept open. It's not possible to just hop on a flight these days.

Xenia Sun 22-Mar-20 10:07:43

China probably has it more under control than London though.

Understatement of the year.

They should have banned all flights, apart from goods, right at the start of the year. I said that at the time. We wouldn't have this mess now if we had done that. Now, we are all pretty much fucked.

It isn't going to make a whole lot of difference if you carry on living a normal life, or just go out once a week for food. Most of us are going to catch it now, no matter what we do.

We were living in hell before, most of us didn't realise it because we had some freedoms. It's going to be a huge wake up call for nearly everyone.

Could it be OP that those flights contain workers on essential business? That is still allowed.

I’m sure it’s regular flights. Remember there will be people wanting a ventilator for free in U.K. since al charges have been waived for medical care due to covid.

Also I know a girl who merily flew off to Dubai on holiday and is now posting the cocktail & bikini snaps on insta like there’s nothing happening.

People can be so irresponsible

Pissing myself at the decent newspaper comment I am guessing that you went out with a group last night and are now nursing a hangover. The thread has now been moved to the coronavirus topic.

I completely agree with you OP I read this the morning and was aghast. It seems so counterintuitive to everything we are being told to do.

The FO has said people should repatriate as quickly as possible as flights may be cancelled at short notice, so possibly the UK are planning to tighten things up in the next days.

I wouldn't assume anything. We should have closed our borders and we haven't - unbelievably!

@vegas888 I agree with you. It is RIDICULOUS, deriding people who take their dog for a walk when flights from tehran are landing.

I read an article yesterday or the day before a lot of Europeans have done the same and fled the UK. The Coronavirus is everywhere now. An influx of potentially ill people just adds to the mix and will spread it a little faster, yes. I know everyone is scared. But facts are facts unfortunately. I’d say the people currently here are more of a worry, spreading with impunity and the way they are acting has a far larger affect than people coming home, many of whom know they’re bloody lucky to be here and will perhaps be more likely to exercise constraint.

in the plague - people targeted groups as being responsible, killing them (usually Jews) - we are in danger of looking for other's as being responsible - usually outsiders. This is a right wing paper it doesn't like immigration - of course it will look to outsiders being at fault & make sweeping generalizations - there are British people stuck in places like Peru & have been trying to get back for some time - I think we might need to use a hotels in Heathrow for isolation or check people are self isolating, but not stopping our citizens from returning

Could it be OP that those flights contain workers on essential business? That is still allowed

Apart from British citizens who’ve been trapped somewhere and are now trying to get home, there is no good reason I can think of for people to be travelling into the UK that could be considered essential. Especially not from places like China, Italy and Iran.

OP, I agree. And Johnson had plenty of time to start quarantine weeks ago when it would have usefully slowed down the spread of the virus. Stupidity.

They will be British Nationals or Residents coming home but yes they do need to quarantined for 14 days.

DP’s colleague is Canadian, he flew to Canada last night and he’s being made to quarantine for 14 days.

The attitude on here that if you don't want hysteria and misinformation you are clearly burying your head is bonkers
It's because I have a lot of serious and factual information that I know why hysteria doesn't help
Trust me burying my head is the last thing I'm doing

Especially not from places like China, Italy and Iran.

What is that supposed to mean? We have various trade and other ties with all of those countries though obviously the first two more so than the latter. There are also a large amount of nationals of all three nations that are settled here and lots of dual-nationals of all three nations that have been born here and lived here their whole lives. Some of those won't even speak the language of their parents' home country. If they are our citizens in particular we obviously have an obligation to enable them to come home. Incredible that anyone would think otherwise. As PP said, none of you would be saying that if it was your family stranded in Italy unable to get a return flight home until the pandemic vaccine is rolled out in up to e.g. 2 yrs time!

Go on skyscanner and see how easy it is to book a flight from Tehran to Heathrow, they fly several times per week, this virus has been known about for weeks so why haven’t they flown home sooner. The flights are not full either so don’t go saying it’s because they are all full.
As for saying they will quarantine its nonsense, my sons friend came back from Spain two days ago and was out and about with friends within a few hours of arriving home.🙄

MeadowHay you know exactly what it means. I wasn’t writing in code.

Many other countries have blocked flights from other specific countries for a week or two before eventually Widening their ban or blocking all incoming flights altogether.

They’ve reacted to news of where the problem is greatest and therefore the risk is greatest. Why should we not be able to do the same?

A friend's colleague flew in from Europe the other day and went straight to the office. No self isolation required apparently.

The day before, someone I know tried to board a flight to Germany from the UK & wasn't allowed onboard as they were only allowing German nationals in.

Keep on being safe. What else can you do?

I think we need to conduct these arguments based on science rather than politics. It seems very dangerous to be allowing people to enter the UK from these places at the moment.