Costa del panic as UK travellers head home

BRITISH tourists facing a two week UK lockdown have fled virus-hit Spain in panic as cases rise.

Plans to make around 600,000 self-isolate for 14 days on their return sparked chaotic scenes at Madrid airport as they boarded a flight to London yesterday.

But some continued to soak up the sun at resorts such as La Cala de Mijas near Malaga on the Costa del Sol.

Impact

Philip Bradby, 55, and Marina Wilson, 40, from Bournemouth, cut short their Barcelona trip because of new quarantine requirement.

At Gatwick Airport, Mr Bradby criticised the Government’s decision, saying: “I think it’s quite poor that they did it so instantaneously.”

Philip, who is in the aerospace industry, said the coronavirus pandemic already had “a major impact on my working life”.

Marina, who has a nine-year-old daughter, said: “I was very upset because I’m having to sort out child care now. Somebody needs to do the shopping for me.”

Employment barrister Grahame Anderson said: “If you come back from Spain today and your boss says you have to be in work on Monday, there’s not a great deal you can do if they say, ‘Well if you don’t come in I’m not going to pay you’.

“And if you haven’t been there for two years you’ve got very little protection against being dismissed.”

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said no worker following quarantine guidance should be penalised by bosses.

He said: “We expect employers to show those employees who will have to quarantine because of the law [change] the flexibility they need.

“If someone is following the law in relation to quarantine and selfisolating the way they should, they can’t have penalties taken against them.”