04 March 2021

‘I want to be home with my family’: Oil workers call for quarantine exemption

04 March 2021

Overseas workers in the oil and gas industry say they have been “completely forgotten about” in the UK’s hotel quarantine rules.

Gary Douglass, a rigging specialist from Sunderland, is among those working offshore in the United Arab Emirates, whose shift pattern of 28 days on, 28 days off means it is now effectively impossible for him to come home and see his family.

“We’ve been completely forgotten about,” he told the PA news agency.

Mr Douglass, 51, was stuck overseas for seven months last year when the UAE closed its borders at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Gary Douglass

Since they reopened he has been able to get home – but only for two weeks out of eight as he is required to quarantine for 10 days when he arrives in the UAE before he is allowed to travel out to the rig.

Now the new rules for arrivals coming into the UK mean he is stuck abroad again as, if he returned home, by the time he finished quarantining he would effectively have to turn around and begin the two-day journey back to Dubai – as well as paying £1,750 every time.

“I’m pretty gutted to be honest with you,” he said.

“If it was 12 months ago I could accept it but the UAE and most other countries brought in restrictions there and then and the UK stayed open.

“So, why, 12 months down the line, are they putting in all these restrictions?”

Mr Douglass said the company he works for has stringent safety policies to ensure workers do not bring Covid on to the rig, where one case could mean the entire operation has to be shut down.

Given the circumstance, he believes there should be an exemption that allows people in his position to quarantine at home.

He said: “Somebody could contact me every day, I’d take as many tests as required – I would even (be happy to) be fitted with one of those ankle locator tags.”

Oil worker Carl Langley

Carl Langley, a mechanical supervisor from South Shields, said he was frustrated by the change in the rules.

“I feel a little bit pissed off,” he told PA. “I cannot get home to see the family.

“I just think it’s absolutely shocking that they’ll not give any sort of exemption.”

The 46-year-old said the only other option available would be to quit his job.

“It’s something I would certainly consider but I cannot afford to,” he said.

“Especially in the current climate – it’s not like there’s millions of jobs bounding about, it just seems all you hear is more and more job losses.

“So at this present time it’s something I would contemplate. I’ve got a mortgage.”

He added: “People say ‘you could be stuck in worse parts of the world’ but I want to be home with my family.”

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