'Heart breaking and stressful' journey from South Africa to England
A woman from Leeds tells us about her emergency journey back to England, due to the new travel ban on South Africa
Last updated 30th Nov 2021
The UK said choosing to ban entry from six African countries, is "a safety first approach" in the face of a virulent new COVID variant.
Flights from South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Eswatini and Zimbabwe were on suspended from 12pm on Friday (26th November) until 4am on Sunday (28th November).
From Sunday 28th November onwards, new arrivals in the UK have been required to quarantine in hotels.
We've been speaking to Beth Parsons from Leeds, who was on holiday in South Africa, when the new travel ban was announced and South Africa moved back on to the red list.
She said:
"I was shocked, I wasn't expecting it at all and then the next emotion is panic and stress. I have never felt blood pressure, like when I was at that airport, and no one could help, flights were being cancelled, prices were going up and up.
"There was one lady we were trying to help get back to the UK, and she was looking at £7,500 to £8,000 for one ticket.
"We passed through a lot of airports. Only at the point of check in, do you realise you need a PCR test, they were about £75 a head.
"By the time we got to the UK, I was surprised there wasn't more tests. We weren't asked to do a test, to funnelled off into one group so we didn't interact with others, we didn't have our temperature checked.
"We weren't really contacted by the government, we had to figure it out from news articles. It was so rushed, and so difficult, there must have been lots of people who couldn't get back.
"Exiting South Africa they did as much as they could, we did a PCR test, they did checks. But in the UK, with regards to physical separation, advice on what we had to do legally, how we'd receive our day 2 and 8 PCR test, there was nothing, we just scanned our passports, and we're told to take masks off for the face scanner."