Excerpt below from:
Britain’s Covid apartheid: 10 years in jail for quarantine dodgers from developing countries is draconian and utterly unjust
The UK government’s ridiculous new authoritarian penalty for arrivals from ‘red list’ countries who skip the mandatory hotel quarantine exposes a shameful ‘them and us’ outlook at the heart of public health policy.
www.rt.com
The UK government’s ridiculous new authoritarian penalty for arrivals from ‘red list’ countries who skip the mandatory hotel quarantine exposes a shameful ‘them and us’ outlook at the heart of public health policy.
Ten years in prison is a tough sentence and usually reserved as punishment for crimes at the serious end of the scale – child grooming, sexual assault, fraud, various firearms offences, and
failing to disclose the travel destination you’ve just returned home from.
Thanks to Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s announcement of quarantine restrictions for incoming travellers, anyone who attempts to hide that they are returning from one of 33 countries currently on the UK’s
‘red list’ of banned destinations, with the intention of skirting around the latest authoritarian restrictions, risks not just a £10,000 fine, but a 10-year jail stretch as well.
Of course, we all understand the public health rationale behind the new hotel quarantine rules. But to punish those who infringe them with penalties usually reserved for crimes such as indecent assault, fraud, burglary, threats to kill, rioting, and possession of an unlicensed shotgun seems somewhat heavy-handed.
Arrivals from anywhere on the red list – which includes plenty of countries in Africa and South America, plus the United Arab Emirates and Portugal – have to spend 10 days in one of 16 government-designated hotels, where they will be charged £1,750 for their stay.
And in case they get any funny ideas about doing a midnight flit, the government has promised there will be “visible security” making sure they follow the rules.
Welcome to the United Kingdom. Now get inside that hotel room and shut the door. Or else!