A law firm representing travellers affected by the UK’s quarantine hotel policy said it has issued court proceedings against the government.
London-based PGMBM has previously sought a judicial review of the regulations that require travellers coming from a red list country to spend 11 nights in a quarantine hotel at a cost of £2,285 ($3,162).
This rule is applicable for everyone, even if they are fully vaccinated and test negative for COVID-19.
PGMBM said a blanket approach was an “unlawful deprivation of liberty” for those who were inoculated against COVID-19 and a violation of their human rights.
There are currently 62 locations on the red list, including Mexico, Tunisia, Turkey, and much of South America and Africa.
Tom Goodhead, managing partner at PGMBM, said: “It’s disappointing that the government hasn’t yet realised that this policy is a fundamental breach of people’s human rights. Law abiding citizens who have been double vaccinated should be free from quarantine.
“The idea that they need to pay for the privilege of their own imprisonment is outrageous.”
The firm said, if the claim was successful, double vaccinated travellers would no longer have to quarantine at hotels and the government could be made to refund the fees for all those who were jabbed and still required to stay in a hotel.
Goodhead added: “The government should look at the actions of almost every other major country in Europe who are exempting the double vaccinated from all forms of quarantine including hotel quarantine which most countries regarded as too extreme to even introduce in the first place.”
PGMBM have asked people who were made to stay in hotel quarantine to register their details if they are interested in joining the claim.
“The people that are contacting us for help every day are not reckless globetrotters. They are typically people who have been forced to travel to care for relatives or attend funerals of their parents or siblings,” Goodhead said.
“To then force them into what the mass media have described as ‘worse than a prison’ is not only reprehensible but also unlawful.”
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