‘Inhumane’ 13-hour Hong Kong airport ordeal for schoolboy with autism as family wait for home quarantine to be approved
- Father says quarantine regulations for people with disabilities ‘inhumane’ and should be scrapped
- Families barred from home quarantine requests on medical grounds until their planes touch down in Hong Kong
A father stranded in Hong Kong’s airport with his vulnerable autistic son for more than 13 hours said on Tuesday the city’s coronavirus quarantine regulations for people with disabilities were “inhumane” and should be ditched.
David Schaus said the delay happened because the family was not allowed to apply for permission for home quarantine for Alexander, nine, who also has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, before they returned to the city from overseas.
Schaus, a US-born businessman and Hong Kong resident, explained that Alexander could become distressed and hurt himself if confined in a small and unfamiliar space such as a hotel room, but the present rules insisted that application for home quarantine on medical grounds could only be made after planes touched down in Hong Kong.
“If you’re a person with special needs, and you do not know if you can get that exemption or not, and you know you need it, that might prevent you from travelling, and now you’re really discriminating against that person with special needs,” Schaus said.
“If the quarantine does continue to last, then people with special needs need to get reasonable accommodation, or it’s just inhumane.”
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Schaus was backed by experts and a community group, who said that the uncertainty about quarantine arrangements could deter people with disabilities from travel.