Coronavirus: Hongkongers stranded overseas fear travellers from Britain who returned via Dubai and tested positive for Covid-19 could make getting home harder
- Residents trying to return to Hong Kong from Britain are spending weeks in cities from Dubai to Nairobi in an attempt to get back
- But three positive tests on Thursday leave many fearing their journey home could be tougher than expected
Many had already travelled to Dubai weeks ago, after the government said the only way they would be able to return was by spending three weeks in a destination outside Britain.
The United Arab Emirates is one of the few places still allowing arrivals from there that also offers transit routes to Hong Kong, and had been considered the best available option, at least before Thursday’s news raised the spectre of further disruptions and uncertainty.
One female Hong Kong resident, who flew to Dubai with her family 10 days ago said there was “a high level of anxiety for everyone right now”.
“We all have just one aim: to get home,” the woman, who declined to be named, said.
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Travellers who have spent two hours in Britain over the past 21 days have been banned from returning to Hong Kong since December 22, after a more transmissible variant of the virus emerged in the country.
On Thursday, authorities announced three people from Britain, who had been in Dubai for a month before flying to Hong Kong through Singapore, had tested positive for the coronavirus.
According to authorities, of those three cases, at least two people showed symptoms of the virus before leaving Dubai.
Singapore Airlines, which offers several transit routes to Hong Kong including one of the few from Dubai, does not require all passengers to take Covid-19 tests before boarding transit flights.
Some Hongkongers still in Dubai felt the trio had put their own chances of returning home at greater risk.
“This jeopardises getting home for hundreds of us,” the woman said. “It is unbelievably selfish for them to fly to Hong Kong while having symptoms.”
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Although she said the virus was under control in Dubai, and called the emirate’s vaccination rate extraordinary, she remained in a hotel room hoping to avoid any potential delays in what was supposed to be the last stop before getting home.
“There is no way we are going to jeopardise others, as this family did,” she said, noting her family planned to take Covid-19 tests before leaving.
Not all of the Hongkongers had flown to Dubai; some stayed in Britain, while others opted for a different route back, including permanent resident Matt Hayes and his family.
After his heavily pregnant wife and son were left stranded in Britain by the ban the family reunited in Kenya, and had been planning to fly back to Hong Kong as early as next Thursday.
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But with their connecting flight from Nairobi scheduled to go through Dubai, Thursday’s news raised the possibility of further delays – something the family cannot afford if the latest addition to the family is to be born in their home city.
“I am really frustrated, because we are just following the government’s own official advice to go through a third country, but they have been making this as difficult as possible,” Hayes said.
He had some sympathy for the three residents who tested positive, and pointed to issues when dealing with authorities in Hong Kong.
“Everyone has been trying their best so they can to get back, while receiving conflicting advice from the Hong Kong government,” he said.
“In my interactions with many government departments, they all say the same thing, to ‘wait and see’. What do they expect people to do?”
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At the start of the year, the UAE experienced a sharp uptick in the number of daily Covid-19 cases, although this has levelled off in recent weeks to around 3,000 a day.
Dr Leung Chi-chiu, chairman of the Hong Kong Medical Association’s advisory committee on communicable diseases, said if cases across the country started to spike, the government should consider imposing a travel ban from there as well.
However, as long as the situation remained in control in Dubai, and arrivals were still subject to testing and quarantine, there should be an acceptable way for Hongkongers to return home safely, Leung said.
He added that the government should otherwise arrange a charter flight because as residents they had a right to return to the city.
“We have to let them come back one way or another,” he said.
