UK immigration officials ‘have had no information’ about hotel quarantine

Immigration officials expected to enforce a mandatory quarantine intended to protect the UK from new coronavirus variants have not been briefed on even the basics about how the system will work, little more than 48 hours before it begins, the Guardian has been told.

The Immigration Services Union (ISU), which represents many of the Home Office’s immigration officers, said that before Monday’s start for the new policy, staff had not been told if they would be expected to check for arrivals who had not properly declared their status, or when and how those obliged to quarantine would be taken to hotels.

“They’ve had no information at all,” said Lucy Moreton, general secretary of the ISU. “They can watch the media, read statements from ministers, but that’s pretty much it.”

From Monday, travellers arriving in the UK from 33 “red list” countries where potentially vaccine-resistant variants are common will be forced to spend 10 days in a hotel room quarantining at their own expense.

There have already been teething issues with the system. Throughout most of Friday people were still unable to secure hotel rooms, with an official booking portal unavailable due to what the health department called a “minor technical issue”.

Moreton said her members had not yet been told whether they needed to check the passports and tickets of people arriving, in case arrivals from red list countries had not declared their status.

She said: “It’s one thing if someone has declared it, prebooked their quarantine, that’s relatively simple. But to what extent are Border Force going to be checking to be sure people have been honest?”

If immigration officials did have to do the checks, she said, it could greatly increase queues in airports, with people mixed together dangerously. The union already has 80 members normally based at Heathrow airport who have been ordered to self-isolate.

Moreton said that while it had been announced that new quarantine management services would deal with red list arrivals being transferred to hotels, her members did not yet know if this would happen at the aircraft, or if they would queue at immigration with other people.