Travelers flying to Britain are being tested by both airlines and Border Force officials for their Covid documents, with more than 30 air passengers disclosing that they were fined £ 500 each upon arrival for not having a clear negative coronavirus examination.
London Heathrow Airport passengers are then let into the country, which is currently in its third lockdown since the first wave swept the nation in March, and told to quarantine after new rules were brought in yesterday, like all other UK arrivals.
The fines came as passengers started to face delays after landing in the UK this morning as officials checked any arriving passenger had a negative test – even though when boarding a flight in a foreign country they will all have already been checked by their airline.
For not complying with the regulations, passengers will be charged a minimum of £ 500, although the Home Office announced today that they are then let on their way – meaning hundreds of people with Covid-19 may have been let into the UK after the rules were enforced.
However, like all arrivals in the UK, they do have to comply with the quarantine laws for ten days – and those who violate those regulations can be fined up to £ 10,000.
The fines are given as fixed penalty notices for not getting a proper examination and do not remain on the criminal record.
If those fined were penalized for having no test at all or for their test certificate not meeting the appropriate requirements have not yet been disclosed by the Home Office.
After their airlines had already checked them while boarding flights overseas, many travelers were also shocked by long queues – with some saying the carriers were the ‘strictest’ in implementing social distancing.
Although official figures for Heathrow arrivals are not yet available, it is estimated that tens of thousands of people are arriving at the airport every day at the moment – after around 35,000 arrivals a day last month.
With some travelers claiming to have to wait up to an hour before their paperwork was reviewed at Terminal Two, Queues formed up again today in Heathrow’s immigration hall.
Both electronic passport gates were locked, requiring a face-to-face inspection of both overseas and British passport holders. They had to apply their passports, a negative test – a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in most cases – and a listing of the locator type where their mandatory ten-day quarantine in Britain will take place.
The staff guided arrivals to maintain a distance of 6ft from each other, but passengers said that individuals ended up facing each other and cramming together.
All arrivals must show proof of a PCR examination and a completed locator form listing the address where ten days of quarantine will be kept by travelers. Few passengers said they would join the release test scheme that decreases self-isolation from ten to five days.
Yesterday, on the first day of the new regime, passengers told MailOnline that they faced 90-minute queues at the border, but Heathrow Airport denied that this was the case.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘People should not be traveling unless absolutely necessary and it is an offense to arrive into England without proof of a negative Covid test or a completed Passenger Locator Form.’
Source: Daily Mail