In an attempt to “slow the spread,” the UK has enacted the most extreme travel mandate the world has ever seen.
If you attempt to skirt their latest rule, you face a £10,000 fine ($12,041 in American dollars to be exact) and a possible prison sentence.
Think they’re bluffing? Just wait until you hear about the travelers who faced the wrath of the government for not playing by the rules.
The UK has placed more than 30 countries on a “red list” and has applied a whole host of rules if you visited one of the countries in the last 10 days.
Countries on the UK “red list” include:
Angola, Argentina, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Burundi, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Eswatini, French Guiana, Guyana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal (including Madeira and the Azores), Rwanda, Seychelles, South Africa, Suriname, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Uruguay, Venezuela, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
As an American traveler, if you’ve been to any of these countries within the last 10 days, you will be denied entry into the UK.
If someone is a resident of the UK and decides to visit one of the “red list” countries, they’ll be forced to quarantine as soon as they return home.
Oh, but they can’t quarantine comfortably in their own home curled up on the couch…
… No, they MUST stay at one of the government facilities.
Even worse, they must PAY for it out of their own pocket.
And no, it’s not cheap.
The cost to place yourself under lockdown at a government hotel is a whopping £1,750 per person ($2,107 USD) which covers your 10-day, 11-night stay.
So for a family of 5, they’ll have to pay over $10,000 to quarantine in their own home country!
Madness!
Now, they will let you out to “exercise” – but only if you get permission.
Talk about a whole new level of travel anxiety!
Naturally, many people don’t have the funds to give the government such a huge amount of cash just to lock themselves up – and even if they did, why would they want to?!
Meanwhile, some people just don’t want the government to know where they’ve been.
So a few savvy travelers thought they could beat the system if they simply didn’t name the red country they had visited.
But government officials are making sure to enforce the rules and have made it clear they are cracking down hard on those who don’t comply.
BBC reported:
“Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Chris Todd said that in the same timeframe, the airport received six passengers who did declare travel from a red-list country, who were taken to a quarantine hotel.
But of the offenders he added: “There are some people who have attempted to hide their routes but that’s not worked out.”
The four passengers who didn’t tell the government where they had been were slapped with a whopping £10,000 fine and now face up to 10 years in prison.
While here in the U.S, Biden has armed the TSA with the authority to fine passengers for “not wearing a mask,” at least things aren’t as ugly as in the UK – so far.
And even if you haven’t been to a “red list” country in the past 10 days, it’s probably best to avoid traveling to the UK altogether – because who knows what mandate they’ll force upon travelers next.
Talk about an absolute nightmare.
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