Hotel quarantine: Ex-BBC journalist leaving red-list Turkey released due to PTSD
A Syrian former BBC journalist, who had been “imprisoned” in Heathrow’s hotel quarantine after leaving red-listed Turkey, has reportedly been allowed out after suffering post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms.
Three days into the mandatory 10 days quarantine, Zaina Erhaim detailed her experience in the airport hotel on Twitter, saying they had been the worst she had experienced since hiding from bombing in her Aleppo home during the Syrian civil war.
Earlier this week, however, Erhaim and her five-year-old daughter were granted an exemption by the Department of Health, after a human rights barrister saw Tweet’s describing her situation and intervened, The Times first reported.
Erhaim, 36, and her family had tried to avoid hotel quarantine on their return from Turkey, with a ten-day layover in green-listed Croatia.
However, the journalist said that the UK Border Agency told her that she had miscalculated her arrival by one hour and was therefore forced to fork out £4500 for 10 days in hotel quarantine.
Erhaim told The Times the trip was not a holiday, and explained on Twitter that she was in Turkey to be with her mother during surgery.
The journalist Tweeted: “Flash backs of being kidnapped are non-stop and my daughter is seeing all this, which makes everything much harder.
“Why there is no consideration for our trauma experiences in this imprisonment?”