The United Kingdom's Home Office has been accused of flouting COVID-19 restriction rules by transporting dozens of asylum-seekers across the country despite suspicion of infection, The Guardian has learned
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News - 02nd October, 2020) The United Kingdom's Home Office has been accused of flouting COVID-19 restriction rules by transporting dozens of asylum-seekers across the country despite suspicion of infection, The Guardian has learned.
According to the newspaper, after a cluster of infections was discovered in a migrant accommodation center in the northern city of Birmingham, the department moved over 40 people to a borough in west London. This is despite a 14-day isolation order issued to all residents.
It was later discovered that at least nine of asylum-seekers tested positive despite the Home Office initially assuring that none were infected.
Local authorities from both sides expressed their protest over the move in late August and accused the Home Office of being "beyond reckless" and transporting the virus from one part of the country to another.
"It is beyond reckless that in the current circumstances a provider operating under the terms of a government-commissioned contract failed to take adequate steps to prevent an outbreak and is continuing to fail to take even the most basic steps to protect the health of vulnerable people that they are paid to support," read the letter from six Midlands region councils, the newspaper reported.
London's Hammersmith and Fulham authorities expressed outrage, having only learned of the migrants' infections after conducting its own COVID-19 tests and accused the Office of risking exacerbating the epidemiological situation in the country, according to the news outlet.
Birmingham said it was ordered the contractor, Serco, to strengthen its mitigation measures and isolate all asylum-seekers in single-room accommodations.
