It’s confirmed, Euro double covid jabs don’t count back in UK and not even the embassy will help you….

UPDATE: The British Embassy in Bratislava confirmed that ex-pats wanting to return to the UK will have to self-isolate when they reach ‘home’.

The emergency department at the embassy at the heart of Bratislava’s old town said categorically that ‘after July 19^th‘ anybody who had their full set of covid vaccinations in the EU will have to self-isolate when they return to the UK’.

The embassy – there to help British nationals having problems in foreign lands – also said it was not in a position to help ex-pats in Slovakia who are finding it impossible to get a copy of the EU covid ‘passport’ which would allow them to travel across Europe on their way back to the UK.

A spokeswomen at the embassy said: “We can’t help with that, you’ll just have to keep trying the Slovak health ministry yourself.”

She was also unable to supply an alternative telephone number or a contact at the ministry.

Yes, we are the forgotten ones, abandoned in the foreign climes of our former ‘friend’ Europe, trapped by one of the most outrageous and pernicious bits of penny-pinching legislation in decades.

In the left-hand corner, us ex-pats … in the right-hand corner, the British government.

And the left-hand corner comes out fighting– Jab! Jab!

Then the right-hand corner slips in a hook – AND IT’S A KNOCKOUT BLOW!

Yes, we are British citizens and we’ve had our full set of jabs, the problem is we’ve had them in on the wrong continent. And that isn’t acceptable to Grant Shapps, the UK’s transport minister.

And guess where he is redirecting the blame to? the NHS, that’s where.

So, as the rest of our fellow citizens in the UK get a ‘passport’ to the pub and the parks and Penzance, us ex-pats are likely to be stuck in a sweltering second rate budget hotel in a lovely seaside town called Folkestone.

And it’s going to cost us thousands. And we’re going to have to pay for loads of tests too. And they are estimated at about £300 per average family …

It is worth noting that these tests are free in lots of Europe. But not in the UK, because you have to have NHS-recognised tests which cost a fortune. Which is a bit of another misnome because all of us ex-pats have spent decades paying in the the NHS, and I’ve always believed it was free at the point of access.

Now the British in Europe site, which describes itself as a coalition of citizens in Europe, has written a furious letter to Grant Shapps and the British government about people like us who have ended up in this outrageously untenable situation.

Here is some of what they have to say. And we here, at The Society, wholly back them.

“Dear Minister

“It appears, although this remains to be clarified, that UK citizens fully vaccinated abroad and living in amber countries are not included in a change of quarantine policy.

We would like to know the epidemiological and legal bases for this decision as we can see no medical or legal reason for it based on the publicly available evidence of the protection against Covid-19 offered by the vaccinations authorised by the EMA and MHRA.

Any UK resident who has been vaccinated with the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines has received a dose made in the exact same production facilities as a UK citizen living in an EU amber country. And a great many recipients of the Astra Zeneca vaccine in the UK have received doses manufactured in the same plants in the EU which supplied our doses. The vaccinations are the same, the medical and public health impacts are the same, yet the quarantine policy is not.

This policy is epidemiologically illiterate (most of the amber list countries have a 7-day case rate lower than that of the UK) and the communications around the policy are confused and misleading. As I write (accessed at 08.07.2021 at 1459) the UK embassy in Luxembourg states:

“TRAVEL UPDATE: From MONDAY 19 JULY 4am British fully vaccinated adults travelling to the UK from amber list countries will not need to isolate including those on clinical trials – another step to fully reopening international travel. Children under 18 will not need to self-isolate.
Luxembourg is on the UK amber list.”

Yet journalists are being told by Number 10 that this is incorrect and the new rules do not apply to British citizens living in amber countries.”

Well said, the British in Europe.

And this is the BIG question they ask Grant Shapps: “Do you agree that this policy will make it extremely difficult for UK citizens resident in EEA amber list countries to travel back to the UK to see family, in many cases after a period of absence of well over over a year, as we face yet another serious wave of Covid-19, and that the policy should be revised urgently to apply to UK citizens vaccinated abroad?”

And don’t forget Grant, old chap, many of us came over to Europe to work for British companies, so continued paying into the UK through taxes etc … and many of us need to come home because Covid has killed off our jobs, work and businesses and many of us are feeling the pinch.

And now we are facing bills of thousands to come home.

PS

At least a thousand Italy supporters were to be shuttled into the UK to provide an officially sanctioned Azzurri chorus for the Euro 2020 final against England.

The UK government has eased the rules for these supporters and a massive amount of VIPs.

They could attend the match without Covid quarantine.

But there were terms and conditions to allow the fans travel in and out of the UK, which so many people either don’t know or are choosing to ignore.

They had to remain in a bubble, segregated at all times, with no contact with the general public, and they had to quarantine for five days upon return to Italy.

The rules for the VIPs were looser, with a “limited cohort” spending the entire week in London and those attending matches allowed to stay in designated hotels and travel in designated private transport.