Coronavirus: Hong Kong High Court refuses to let family of South Africa returnees quarantine at home
- Legal bid from Aberdeen household against decision confining them to a government facility fails
- The family was ordered into 14 days of mandatory quarantine in Covid-19 policy that only applies to some countries
Leslie Grant Horsfield, founder of the sustainable hospitality company Naked Group, together with his wife, three children and domestic helper, were ordered into 14 days of compulsory quarantine upon their return from South Africa, via Doha, on May 14.
Court documents filed in their application for judicial review showed they had expected to isolate at home and were “absolutely flabbergasted” to find the camp “not safe or habitable” because of “extremely poor and unsanitary” conditions.
Their lawyers had argued that they must be allowed to return home because their detention in camp was unlawful when the chief executive had no power to make regulations providing for the quarantine or detention of persons in the first place.
They also called the detention arbitrary as they argued there was no proper basis for concluding that all entrants from South Africa posed a higher risk than other arrivals – such as from the United States and United Kingdom – who could quarantine at home.
All six applicants have tested negative for Covid-19. The judge will explain his reasons on a later date.
