Great Britain defends the Spanish quarantine movement; travelers react with anger and concern

MADRID / LONDON (Reuters) – British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab on Sunday supported his government’s abrupt decision to impose a two-week coronavirus quarantine on travelers returning from Spain, sparking anger and confusion. among tourists.

The measure to remove Spain from a list of safe trips was announced late on Saturday and took effect from midnight (2300 GMT on Saturday), leaving travelers with no time to dodge or plan ahead.

Raab defended the imposition of quarantine as a “real-time response” to a jump in Spanish coronavirus cases reported on Friday, the latest in a month-long resurgence of infections.

“We cannot apologize … we must be able to take swift and decisive action,” he said on Sky News.

Opposition Labor Party health policy chief Jonathan Ashworth criticized Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government for its “downright chaotic” handling of the measure, which has ruined the plans of many potential vacationers.

The measure will also strongly affect the Spanish tourism sector just as it is beginning to recover from months of coronavirus blockades and travel restrictions.

At Madrid’s Barajas airport, Emily Harrison, who was taking a flight to London and faced the possibility of having to isolate herself for two weeks.

“It is really bad because he has suddenly arrived, he is not given much time to prepare, so now everyone is panicking,” said Harrison of Essex.

“We had a wedding to go to and we had plans to visit friends and family that we hadn’t seen in a long time and now we’re going to have to cancel all those plans, so it’s really annoying.”

Spain had been on a list of countries that the British government had said were safe for travelers to visit, meaning that tourists returning home would not have to be quarantined.

But it has seen an increase in cases in recent weeks, prompting most regions to impose rules for the use of masks everywhere and, in several areas, including Barcelona, ​​calls for people stay home.

“We are quite frustrated to be honest, because he actually feels safer in Spain,” British tourist Carolyne Lansell said of the quarantine decision. She was flying to Ibiza from Madrid for a 10 day vacation before going home.

A spokeswoman for the Spanish Foreign Ministry said Saturday night that Spain “respects the UK’s decisions” and that she contacted authorities there.

Spain was one of the countries most affected in Europe by the pandemic, with more than 290,000 cases and more than 28,000 deaths. It imposed very strict blocking measures to contain the spread, gradually easing in early summer.

‘ABSOLUTE DISASTER’

The British decision follows in Norway’s footsteps on Friday to reimpose a 10-day quarantine requirement for people arriving from Spain, while France advised people not to travel to the northeast region of Catalonia in Spain.

But a collapse of tourism from Great Britain would have a much greater impact on the economy of Spain, where tourism accounts for 12% of GDP. The British accounted for more than 20% of foreign visitors to Spain last year, the largest group by nationality.

“This decision is an absolute disaster for the recovery, there is no other way to see this,” Angel Tavares, head of European economy at Oxford Economics Consulting, said on Twitter, referring to the quarantine ruling.

Antonio Pérez, the mayor of Benidorm, a Mediterranean resort that relies heavily on British tourists, said it was a “hard blow.”

In addition to quarantine, the British Foreign Office advised against all, except essential, trips to mainland Spain.

The regional authorities of the Canary and Balearic Islands, which are popular holiday destinations, said they would try to obtain a quarantine exemption for people traveling from the archipelagos.

(This story has been filled in to correct the word in the ninth paragraph)