BUSTED FOR THEIR PLASTIC SURGERY
Pair on way from Dubai refused to go to hotel
TWO women who travelled to Dubai for cosmetic surgery are due to appear in court today after they were arrested for refusing to go to a quarantine hotel.
The women, from north Dublin, who are both aged in their 30s, refused to comply with members of the Defence Forces in the arrivals hall at Dublin Airport when they were told they would have to quarantine at a nearby hotel for two weeks.
It is understood the women had returned from Dubai where they had undergone cosmetic surgery in breach of Covid regulations.
Gardaí were called to Terminal 2 where further attempts were made to convince the women to get on a bus that would take them to the Crown Plaza Hotel in Santry.
After all efforts were exhausted, the women were handcuffed and taken to Ballymun Garda Station.
A senior source told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘Defence Forces personnel explained the situation to these ladies, but there was no convincing them.
‘They didn’t make a scene at airport’
‘Gardaí were then called to try and warn them of the consequences of refusing to comply with mandatory hotel quarantine.
‘They didn’t make a scene at the airport or scream and shout, but for failing to abide by the rules they were arrested and left peacefully without resisting,’ the source said.
The source added that he hopes this incident will serve as a ‘valuable lesson’ to anyone thinking of doing likewise.
‘They will both be brought before a judge [today] and will very likely have to go to the quarantine hotel anyway on top of facing a fine.’
Gardaí confirmed the arrests in a statement which read: ‘An Garda Síochána were called to an incident in Dublin Airport this afternoon, by the state liaison officer.
‘Gardaí implemented the 4Es approach – engaging, explaining, and encouraging with enforcement a last resort.
‘After failing to comply with gardaí, two women, aged in their 30s, were arrested for breaches of the Health Act and taken to Ballymun Garda Station.
‘Both women have since been charged. They are due to appear before the Criminal Courts of Justice, Court 2, [today] at 10.30am,’ the spokesman added. Anyone travelling from the 33 countries on the Government’s category two list must quarantine for 12 nights at a designated hotel.
Dubai has long been a hotspot for cosmetic surgery tourists with direct Aer Lingus flights, good medical facilities, plush hotels, plenty of sun and anonymity part of the attraction.
Meanwhile, a further 26 states will be added to this mandatory quarantine list from 4am next Tuesday. People travelling from these territories must pre-book accommodation for 12 nights at an expense of €1,875 per person.
Meanwhile, the mandatory hotel quarantine system has been slammed as a ‘half-baked exercise in optics’, as the row over adding more countries to the list continues. Just over a week has passed since the first passengers arrived at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Dublin, but the measure has proven fiercely unpopular within the Coalition.
The list of countries has been extended by 27, but it will not include EU countries such as France, Germany or Italy, along with the United States.
However, the Wallis and Futuna Islands, Saint Lucia, Israel, Qatar and Kosovo have been added, despite the low number of arrivals to Ireland from these territories. The Department of Health wants to expand the list to EU nations, while the Department of Foreign Affairs has reservations. Former attorney general Michael McDowell said the economic interests of Ireland must come into play when deciding what countries should be included. He told RTÉ’s Today With Claire Byrne: ‘We have to bear in mind that there are consequences if we say that all transatlantic or continental travel has to stop in Ireland. ‘We can’t just say: “Let’s turn Ireland into a totally isolated state.’’’ The independent senator said if there is evidence that a variant could enter Ireland from an EU member state if we do not take precautions, he does not see a problem with imposing restrictions ‘as long as it’s necessary, it’s proportionate and it’s nondiscriminatory’.
Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher also told the programme that Irish residents arriving in the country who have an alternative place to quarantine rather than a hotel should be able to do so if proper inspections are put in place.
‘Otherwise, our hotel system will not have the capacity in terms of quarantining,’ he said. ‘That is an issue, because between France, Germany and Italy alone there must be 50,000 to 60,000 people at
least – Irish citizens – living in those countries.
‘If any percentage of them wants to come home for any reasons it could overwhelm the system.
Mr Kelleher added that when countries are being added to the list it should be based on risk to public health as opposed to the impact it may have on travel issues or fundamental freedoms.
‘While we are rolling out the vaccination programme, we cannot heighten risk. There is always a balance to be struck, but it must be struck firmly in favour of public health in the short term.’
People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy described the situation as ‘a joke’ and said public health advice is being trumped by geopolitics.
‘It is about the theatre of pretending to do something without actually doing it,’ he said, adding that 10,000 travellers are coming here every week and only a ‘tiny proportion’ are required to do mandatory hotel quarantine.
He said: ‘It is almost pointless what the Government is doing, but they get to say: “Oh, we’re having mandatory quarantine.” If you look through the list of states, it’s not going to add much pressure to the hotels because nobody comes in from these states.’
Meanwhile, Clare TD Michael McNamara described hotel quarantine as ‘a half-baked exercise in optics’ and a ‘flawed measure’ in the context of an unchecked border with the North. ‘Israel, the poster boy for vaccination success, is on the list of states to be quarantined,’ he said. ‘Should the rationale for its inclusion be maintained, quarantining will be maintained indefinitely after we have completed our vaccination programme and other states have too.
‘Mandatory quarantining is a flawed measure when we have an open, unchecked border with the UK. It is a half-baked exercise in optics when we are not rapid testing the majority of people arriving into this State whether by air, sea or over land, much less carrying out genomic sequencing of positive samples which is the only way that potentially vaccineresistant mutations can be detected,’ he said.
‘Nobody comes in from these states’