'Is this worth £2,285?' legal action launched over quarantine hotel 'false imprisonment'
9 December 2021, 06:50
The UK Government’s Hotel Quarantine policy is a “breach of human rights”, lawyers will argue today.
One customer Francesca Desquesnes was placed into a mandatory £2,285 quarantine hotel for ten days after she arrived at Heathrow's Terminal 4 from South Africa
Francesca, who is paying £2,285 for her stay, must order her dinner from a menu that she claims repeats each week, meaning from day eight she will be eating the same food as in the previous seven days.
An international law firm is launching a judicial review into the UK's hotel quarantine policy, which has once again been made mandatory for all arrivals from "high-risk" countries.
PGMBM’s legal challenge against the government will be heard before a judge at the Royal Courts of Justice.
PGMBM’s legal team is seeking a Judicial Review over the newly reinstated policy which sees people travelling to the UK from red list countries forced into a ten-day quarantine at a cost of more than £2,000 per person.
Lawyers will argue that mandatory hotel quarantine of fully vaccinated people is unlawful and an interference with their right to personal liberty.
The hearing comes after the Prime Minister was forced to defend the latest travel restrictions following comments by a leading scientist who said the “horse had bolted” on the Omicron variant, and as scores of travellers complain of a lack of space in quarantine hotels as well as sub-standard food and conditions.
Ms Desquesnes said her food for her first day in the quarantine hotel consisted of:
Breakfast - Two hardboiled eggs, two hash browns, mushrooms and a box of Kellogg's cereal
Lunch - Vegetable quiche served with carrots, carrot and coriander soup
Dinner - Vegetable casserole, herb crusted potatoes and green beans
She claims the soup she was served was brought to her cold and she called reception to complain, only for the replacement soup to not be much warmer.
Ms Desquesnes will be allowed to leave at one minute past midnight on Dec 15, but has to endure another six days yet.
To date over 200,000 people have been forced into quarantine after travelling into the UK from a red list country.
