Letters | Coronavirus travel ban: shutting out Hong Kong kids stranded in the UK is inhumane

Name: Coronavirus: what we know so far about the new strain of Covid-19
Uploaded: 2021-01-19T22:40:08.000Z
Duration: 3 min 57 s
Description: Coronavirus: what we know so far about the new strain of Covid-19

Despite the emergence of a new coronavirus strain, several countries are allowing their residents to return from the UK while putting in place stricter entry requirements. Hong Kong could do the same

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Passengers arrive at Hong Kong airport on December 22, a day after the government announced a ban on all passenger flights from Britain in a bid to stop a mutated strain of Covid-19 from reaching the city. Photo: Nora Tam

Letters

Published: 6:40am, 20 Jan 2021Updated: 6:40am, 20 Jan 2021

I am writing to call on the Hong Kong government to lift the ban on flights returning from the United Kingdom while adopting a more reasonable approach to prevent the importing of new virus strains.

I am a mother of a child who has been stranded in the UK since he commenced his university studies there in September.

I wish the government could understand my worries as a mother, given the surge of infections across the UK recently. It is of great concern whether a student there who contracted the virus would receive the necessary medical care and attention.

I believe that it is not the intention of the government to disregard the well-being of Hongkongers and put their lives at risk at a time when it is dangerous to be in the UK because of the pandemic.

Although other countries have also applied restrictions on travellers from there because of the fast-spreading nature of the new virus strain, many, including Australia and Japan, still allow their residents to return following a period of quarantine, which is reasonable and in line with humanitarian grounds.

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Coronavirus: what we know so far about the new strain of Covid-19

I understand the government is striving to prevent the rise in the number of Covid-19 cases from accelerating. However, shutting the door to all travellers from the UK, including Hong Kong residents, without a time frame is unreasonable and inhumane.