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In the UK the situation is chaotic for those who want to return to Portugal. Canceled flights, expensive tests, and results that don’t arrive in time for shipments.
Doubts multiply, uncertainties thicken and the confusion among Portuguese emigrants in the United Kingdom – a country where travelers must leave with a negative covid-19 test in the 72 hours prior to departure – is such that there is even a given up traveling to Portugal, giving up on family vacations. Like João Rodrigues and his wife. Or who saw the flight canceled at the last moment and went to celebrate the field away from home and like Beatriz Pereira. Or like Ricardo Pereira, who was blocked in the English Channel and will spend Christmas in the cab of the truck.
“There is some misinformation, and it was good that there were guidelines and recommendations on what people should do,” criticizes Nelson Calvinho, who arrived in Lisbon on Sunday and describes a “chaotic” scenario. “I kept thinking about not coming here for Christmas, but I had to renew my passport, because there is no consulate in London,” says Nintendo’s marketing director in the UK, where he plans to return on the 30th, before Brexit. However, this is if the flight is not canceled.
Conflicting information
Despite the restrictions enacted by the British government that gave João Rodrigues, who works in a sports shop, the opportunity to travel with his wife to Aveiro at Christmas, the plan to embark would soon fall apart due to the “confusion “. that the Portuguese government authorized the test in Portugal, but in the UK there were security guards at the terminal gate [do aeroporto] that they would not let in without proof in hand. And we didn’t know what it was, we knew we had to pay for it ourselves. 600 pounds [cerca de 670 euros] of the trip plus 100 [aproximadamente 112 euros] for each test, “he explained.
“At the airport test center, the test with the plane ticket was possible, but 90% of the results did not arrive in time for departure. I mean, we couldn’t board the flight. And, with so many questions without clear answers, we decided to stay here “, says João, who included in the equation the shame of having to return to London” before New Year’s Eve “to fulfill” the 10 days of mandatory quarantine. so I can go back to work. “
“There are many people who were going to spend Christmas at home and who are not going to risk it,” says Beatriz Pereira, a native of Guimarães, who works in digital marketing and has lived in central London for half a year. It should have landed the day before yesterday in Porto, if the trip had not been canceled. “I was going to surprise my family,” she laments resigned to the “different Christmas” she will have, alone.
“Even if the flight was not canceled, I would not be able to travel due to the test, because the result did not arrive on time,” he says, referring to the examination carried out at the airport. “Ryanair says you can travel without the test, but TAP says you can’t,” he reported, adding that “there are several pharmacies that do it, with prices between 99 and 150 pounds. [entre os 110 e os 170 euros], but there are no vacancies anywhere. “
Held since Monday near the port of Dover, Ricardo Pereira only resumed the trip to cross the English Channel, bound for France, yesterday morning, after having carried out the covid-19 test only in the truck and having resulted negative. “The military police handed me a paper saying I’m ready to go,” the truck driver from Caxinas, in Vila do Conde, told JN. “I was the one who registered the test and the result on the British government website and, as I understand a little English, I helped other colleagues. It is very complicated if we do not have support,” he confessed.
like a refugee camp
“Now there is little time left,” Ricardo convinced himself, aware that he would not arrive on time for Christmas dinner. “Running well, and unloading in the Porto area, I arrived in Vila do Conde on Saturday,” he estimated.
The driver notes that, despite the “thousands” of truckers held in Dover, the day before yesterday the medical technicians “distributed the tests and left around 4 pm They only returned today. [ontem]At 9.30 am “The confusion was great:” It looked like a refugee camp, “compared the driver, who speaks in a scenario of” chaos “and criticizes the” communication failures “between the responsible entities.
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