Teens trapped in Italian hotel for a month
FOUR British teenagers have been kept in solitary confinement in an Italian hotel turned coronavirus detention centre for almost a month.
Rachel Goldsmith, Lily Griffin and LilyRose Wallace, all 18, and Millie Acers, 19, were on holiday in Sicily when they tested positive for the virus on September 15.
The school friends were placed in separate rooms at a hotel in Palermo which is surrounded by armed police and the military.
The girls, who all attended £18,000-a-year James Allen’s Girls’ School in Dulwich, south- east London, are now missing the start of their university courses, exams and jobs.
Under Italian health laws they must test negative for the virus twice before they can go.
Miss Acers was able to leave on Sunday after two negative results, but the others tested positive for the third time this week.
They are now appealing to the Government for help. Miss Griffin said: ‘We did everything we could to protect Italians... and now the Government and the consulate are doing nothing to get us out of this situation.’
They also feel let down by the food and the cleanliness of the hotel, and have safety concerns after Miss Goldsmith was threatened by a woman on her corridor.
The Foreign Office said: ‘The length of quarantine is based on local measures to control the spread of the virus.
‘But where we have had concerns about food, rooms and medical issues affecting British nationals, we’ve raised them directly with the Italian authorities.’