Labour says reports of up to 8,000 tourists arriving a day are 'staggering'

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Labour says reports of up to 8,000 tourists arriving a day are 'staggering'

Postby dutchman » Mon Apr 05, 2021 5:47 pm

Party is demanding hotel quarantine system be tightened up to avoid new Covid variants coming to Britain

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Labour has said it is “completely outrageous” that up to 8,000 tourists may be arriving in Britain every day and demanded the government tighten up its hotel quarantine system to avoid new coronavirus variants being brought into the country.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow home secretary, said ministers were not doing enough to secure the borders after the Times reported the statistic, as well as other figures including that as many as 90% of arrivals at Gatwick airport are tourists.

The government is under pressure to clarify whether the figures are correct.

Yvette Cooper, the Labour MP and chair of the Commons home affairs select committee, said the findings raised “serious concerns” and added that the Home Office “needs to urgently respond, explain and publish these figures”.

David Lammy, the shadow justice secretary, said it was “staggering” many tourists were still being allowed into the UK, despite most international travel outside the country being banned and the prospect of a ”traffic light” system to help it resume not coming into force for several months.

“I’m not one for ‘let’s close the borders’ but you can’t have a situation where later on today Boris Johnson is announcing a sort of red, amber, green system for those of us who are thinking about a summer holiday, and then we find out that the whole world and their aunt can come in, breeze into Britain,” he told LBC radio.

“Where is the hotel quarantine for these people? Nowhere. Where is [the home secretary] Priti Patel by the way? She’s so good at hiding from the media and not explaining this system.”

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Re: Labour says reports of up to 8,000 tourists arriving a day are 'staggering'

Postby rebbonk » Mon Apr 05, 2021 7:48 pm

Maybe Stammer[sic] ought to have done a better job of holding Bozo to account from day one? Stammer has completely failed in his job as leader of the opposition.
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Re: Labour says reports of up to 8,000 tourists arriving a day are 'staggering'

Postby rebbonk » Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:34 pm

17-year-old from Birmingham helps UK arrivals dodge Covid tests

A 17-year-old’s scam of false paperwork to help UK-bound travellers pass border checks has set off an alarm when the country is slowly coming out of lockdown restrictions.

Malik Younas Fazal with false invoices for which he charges £80, is aiding UK arrivals dodge Covid-19 tests while in quarantine.

Since mid-February, all arrivals in the UK are required to quarantine for ten days.

Travellers arriving from countries on the ‘red list’ have to go to a government-approved hotel. While those arriving from countries off the list can self-isolate at home, and taking two postal tests.

Police had also warned about the sale of fake negative test certificates online and even at airports. Health experts say this could put lives at risk and undermine the vaccination programme with mutant strains entering the country undetected.

Under the government’s quarantine ‘travel test package’, travellers are required to undergo two tests on day two and day eight to determine presence of any Covid mutant strain.

Meanwhile, Fazal’s fake invoices helps UK arrivals to dodge the tests required for the compulsory ‘travel test package’.

Fazal, from Birmingham has managed to duplicate invoices of CTM, company involved for genuine Covid tests.

He shared the details of his scam with an undercover reporter from Daily Mail and said how one of his client arriving from Germany got around airport border staff by simply showing fake invoices on phone.

Also, the travellers seeking entry into UK need to fill in a passenger locator form, which includes the booking reference number for the ‘travel test package’.

He advised the reporter to have the hard copy of the form with the reference number from the fake invoice, which he claimed to be enough to clear border checks.

When contacted by Daily Mail, Fazal, studying applied science at a college said he regretted his actions. Moreover, he denied selling the fake invoice to any German traveller, which he had earlier claimed.


Source: https://www.easterneye.biz/17-year-old-from-birmingham-helps-uk-arrivals-dodge-covid-tests/

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