Amber-list travellers to expect home visits, hefty fines for violators: Priti Patel

BRITON holidaymakers returning from amber-list countries should expect a “knock on the door” any time after their arrival, said home secretary Priti Patel.

Stepping up quarantine-rule enforcement, police and private contractors will be conducting up to 10, 000 spot-checks a day to make sure holidaymakers are quarantining themselves after their return from amber-list countries, Patel said in an interview to Daily Mail.

“Significant resources have been put in place – millions of pounds – in terms of the follow-up checking of people around their testing and making sure they stay at home. It has been stepped up,” said Patel, adding that people will not go unchecked and people flouting quarantine rules will face fines of up to £10,000.

About 7,000 home visits were carried out by Test and Trace officials on Tuesday (18), a home office official said. In cases where people were found away from home, police was called to issue fines. A total of 639 have been handed out to date, though this number is now likely to rise significantly.

(Photo by Pau BARRENA / AFP) (Photo by PAU BARRENA/AFP via Getty Images)

On Monday (17), the outright overseas travel ban was replaced by a system of grading different countries by their covid level into green, amber, and red lists. The amber-list countries include some of the Briton’s favorite holiday destinations like Austria, Egypt, Finland, France, Spain, Greece, and Luxembourg among others, as per GOV.UK.

Despite the government’s repeated advice over not making non-essential trips to amber list countries, analysts believe that more than 270,000 people would have traveled to amber countries by Sunday. 

Meanwhile, prime minister Boris Johnson has hardened his stance on trips to amber list countries when he told MPs that families should visit medium-risk destinations only in "extreme circumstances" and not for holidays as compared to other MPs saying it was OK to travel to those countries to "visit family."

The contradictory messages have left holidaymakers and travel agencies in limbo. Some five million Britons, who have booked trips to amber list countries this summer, are now confused whether to cancel or re-book or hope their destination makes it into the green list by the time of their travel.