We were made to feel like criminals as Portugal was moved to amber
‘FINE’ ILLOGICAL AND DRACONIAN
A GROUP of friends who were in Portugal when it switched from being green listed to amber said they were made to feel like criminals.
In May, Portugal was classed as green so Cheslyn Baker, from Swannington, headed off with two friends to the Algarve, where one of them had a holiday home.
She said: “At last we could go with a friend back to her home in the southern Algarve, after many months of lockdown.”
They booked Ryanair flights from East Midlands Airport for a flight on June 3, having taken a compulsory Covid test costing £160 each.
As they filed towards the boarding gate, they first heard a rumour the UK was considering taking Portugal off the green list.
Cheslyn said: “We thought it wouldn’t happen as cases there, especially in the Algarve, were so low, otherwise we wouldn’t have considered going in the first place.”
The three, who are all fully-vaccinated, had been in the Algarve a couple of days when they heard the news that the change to amber was definite.
She said British tourists and Portuguese people were first bemused, then angry. Cheslyn said: “To me it felt like we, as British citizens, had committed a crime.
“We were certainly receiving a hefty fine in costs (£300) of three further PCR tests and a prison sentence of 10 days in the form of isolation, plus daily check ups at random, not to mention visits by officials to make sure we were staying put.”
All travellers returning to the UK were required to produce proof of orders and payments for tests yet to be taken on days two and eight of their isolation.
They had to show a negative Covid test certificate at the airport and fill in a long passenger locator form.
However, it was not until they reached the boarding gate at Faro to fly home to East Midlands Airport that any of this was asked for.
Two passengers who were meant to be on their flight were not allowed to board the plane home as their results were on their email, which they could not access because of poor mobile reception.
When they got home, Cheslyn and her pals were not asked for any proof of Covid vaccinations.
Cheslyn said: “Some of the measures, haphazard and unclear as they were, are understandable to prevent the spread of Covid.
“Other rules aren’t at all clear or understandable.
“Having to take so many costly PCR tests, then also to be put into 10 days’ isolation and ordered not to go outside anywhere at all during that time, even to walk the dog, seems illogical.
“It all seems draconian and far too punishing to UK citizens who have already more than proved, at great cost, that they are Covidfree.
“The government should at least clarify in plain language the scientific reasons for prohibitive measures they take with travel.”
At the time of Portugal’s switch from green to amber, the Department for Transport said the situation in Portugal “required swift action to protect the gains made with the vaccine rollout”.
It said 68 cases of the delta variant, first discovered in India, have been identified in Portugal.
Test and Trace figures show that of 200 arrivals from Portugal between May 6 and 19, three tested positive for the virus.
‘PRISON TERM OF ISOLATION’ PLUS TESTING