A gym worker from Brazil has shared her hotel quarantine journey after travelling from the ‘red list’ country to the UK yesterday.
Maria Eugênia Oliveira, 34, filmed as she waited at the airport, arrived at the hotel lobby and even offered a tour of her room at the Radisson Blu Edwardian Hotel in Heathrow.
The gym attendant, who is currently living in London, will spend ten days at the hotel following her arrival in the UK.
The new rules introduced on Monday mean people arriving in England must quarantine in a hotel for ten days at a cost of £1,750 if they have been to a country with a high Covid risk, such as Portugal or Brazil.
Maria Eugênia Oliveira, 34, filmed as she waited at the airport, arrived at the hotel lobby and even offered a tour of her room at the Radisson Blu
In video taken at Heathrow airport Ms Oliveira filmed the lines at the border as she revealed she had been separated from other travellers to wait for transportation to the hotel.
She told MailOnline: ‘When we arrived at the airport, right from the beginning there was a person showing us where to go with a sign with the “red list countries”.
‘They were showing us where to go, all the way there were loads of people holding these signs and showing us where to go.
‘So when you approach the border you can see that most people go the regular way, where everybody normally goes and then we were pointed to go all the other way around. There was not a big queue, there were just a few people in front of me.’
The gym attendant, who is currently living in London, will spend ten days at the hotel following her arrival in the UK
Once inside her room she filmed the bathroom and looked inside the wardrobe where she found an ironing board, iron, and a hairdryer
In a cupboard beneath the TV (right) she found supplies to make tea and coffee. Left, the ironing board
She said the staff working at the border were ‘very kind, very relaxed, very polite’ as she was asked for a form she had to fill in on the Government website, her negative coronavirus test result, passport and proof of right to live in the UK.
She added: ‘He checked all my documents and asked to see the email reservation for my hotel.
‘Then I was taken to get my luggage downstairs. There was always someone by my side.
‘Then another person approached me with a UK boarder worker and asked for my hotel reservation, my passport and what was the purpose of my trip, how many days I had spent in Brazil and if I had anything to declare in my luggage.
‘They asked me to have a seat and wait with other before being transferred to the hotel. In total it took 2 and a half hours between the time I landed and when I arrived at the hotel.’
Ms Oliveira filmed the moment she waited in the lobby of Heathrow Radisson Blu to be shown to her room.
Videos taken the following morning showed a breakfast of yogurt, fruit, porridge and juice had been provided
She also showed off the contents of a suitcase which held a fluffy dressing gown, a coffee machine and various snacks and bottles of alcohol
Other travellers could be seen waiting in front of her as the group was processed.
Once inside her room she filmed the bathroom and looked inside the wardrobe where she found an ironing board, iron, and a hairdryer.
In a cupboard beneath the TV she found supplies to make tea and coffee.
She said: ‘There was 11 of us in total in the bus between the airport and the hotel, only one passenger was not coming from Brazil. We had to keep social distancing inside the bus as well so each one of us had one seat.
Anthony Pium, 30, from Leyton, East London, holds up his laptop to the window of his room at the Radisson Blu Edwardian hotel near London Heathrow Airport today, displaying a message to the media outside asking for legal help
‘When we arrived at the hotel they asked us for our passports for check in. After that we were taken to a conference room, they gave us a paper with all the rules we would have to follow during the stay, wifi passcodes and all the menus for all the days we were going to stay here. So we have two options for breakfast, lunch and dinner, one of them is vegetarian.’
She said her room was ‘quite nice’ with a ‘big wardrobe’, adding: ‘I have an iron, I have a hairdryer, my room has two single beds, a nice TV, a fridge, a kettle so I can make some coffee.
‘Regarding hygiene, I have brought my own bodywash and toothpaste. Thank God I brought them – I haven’t asked actually – but I haven’t seen any. But I have towels and toilet paper and handwash provided.’
An exclusive video filmed by Mr Pium shows him being forced back into the Radisson Blu Hotel near Heathrow Airport today
Videos taken the following morning showed a breakfast of yogurt, fruit, porridge and juice had been provided.
She also showed off the contents of a suitcase which held a fluffy dressing gown, a coffee machine and various snacks and bottles of alcohol.
It comes after a British father-of-one tried to break out of a quarantine hotel near London Heathrow Airport this morning before going on hunger strike after claiming he was being held there ‘under duress’.
Anthony Pium, 30, from Leyton, East London, was involved in an angry confrontation with security guards as he tried to force his way out of the Radisson Blu Edwardian hotel ‘to get some fresh air’.
An exclusive video filmed by Mr Pium shows him being forced back into the hotel. Security guards surrounded him and pushed him back as he asked to be allowed out for some air and repeatedly told them to social distance.
Mr Pium today told MailOnline of his anguish of been detained at Heathrow last night, after he flew in from Sao Paulo, where he was working for his travel agency Sky Fly Travel. He said: ‘I am being held under duress. I have not willingly signed any form that consents to me being held in quarantine at a hotel because of the Covid crisis.’
Mr Pium, who was photographed wearing a Gucci hat worth £240 and a £325 T-shirt from French luxury fashion house Balmain, added: ‘The only reason I filled in the form was that I could be allowed back into Britain.
‘They gave me this passenger locator form and I signed it with the words ‘under duress’ on it. They have tried to fine me £500 and told me that I have to pay £1750 for the hotel. But I haven’t said yes to any of this.
‘I just wanted to get back into the country, quarantine at home and see my son, who is eight, and I’m really missing him. I did give them my bank account, and have tried to take the £1,750 but it has been declined because that account only has £17 on it and that was my plan. I am so angry about all this.’
Meanwhile a YouGov poll found 90 per cent of Britons are in favour of the quarantine scheme, while 72 per cent thought the rules should apply to all arrivals, not just those from the 33 countries on the UK’s ‘red list’.