Letters | Covid-19 pandemic: lift UK travel ban so stranded Hongkongers can come home
- December decision to impose ban was understandable, but it’s been two months and the Hong Kong government seems to have forgotten about its citizens abroad
Like so many other people, I travelled at Christmas, not because I have any festive feeling, but because of ageing relatives who have been in lockdown in Britain for most of 2020 and who depend on me despite Hong Kong being my home for over 20 years.
I think anyone of a clear mind accepts that during a pandemic, anything to protect lives is important and that the Hong Kong government’s decision in December to ban anyone from returning to Hong Kong who has been in Britain for more than two hours was a valid precautionary measure.
What I do not understand is why, two months later, we seem to have become the forgotten citizens abroad.
Surely with a preflight Covid-19 test in Britain, followed by a test on arrival in Hong Kong, and two further tests during quarantine where we have no contact with anyone during the potential incubation period, the likelihood that we will cause a spike in coronavirus infections is less than from those freely walking about on Hong Kong’s streets?
It is getting to the point that we are becoming refugees in a second country, that for many means they have no medical care or housing during this period of limbo.