Several flight passengers evade COVID-19 quarantine upon landing in Erbil: eyewitnesses
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A number of passengers who had been on board a flight from London to Erbil on Friday were able to evade the obligatory two-week quarantine for international arrivals to the Kurdistan Region, fellow travelers have claimed, raising fears that they could potentially spread the COVID-19 virus in the Region.
Rudaw English spoke to two of around 190, mostly Kurdish passengers who boarded flight TW921 from London Stansted to Erbil on Friday night, which arrived in the Kurdistan Region capital on Saturday morning.
Both passengers Rudaw English spoke to claim that a fellow traveler was whisked away from the Erbil International Airport terminal in a private vehicle, while a number of others disappeared from chartered buses on the drive to Sulaimani.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has taken stringent measures since early March to curb the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Region, quarantining thousands of passengers returning from neighboring countries and Europe in line with international health standards.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and several European countries have applauded the relative success of KRG measures in isolating the Region and minimizing the outbreak's impact.
But despite the stringency of the measures – and assurances by the KRG that they apply universally – some of the Region’s residents have managed to tap into their connections and avoid the obligatory quarantine for arrivals from overseas, putting the KRG’s success story in jeopardy.
In mid-March, a KRG official who returned from Germany and refused to be quarantined at Erbil airport because of his position of authority tested positive for COVID-19 some five days later in Duhok.
The Asayesh security forces fired the individual in question and vowed to crack down on cronyist use of powerful connections in their continued battle against spread of the virus.
The flight, for which tickets set each passenger back over £600, arrived at Erbil International Airport at around 7 am on Saturday, after transiting through Antalya in Turkey.
At Erbil’s airport, medical workers tested the temperature of all the arrivals without exception. But as immigration officers took away passenger passports, an exclusive passenger call was issued, two passengers told Rudaw English.
“A man by the name of Halat was called for through the loudspeaker at Erbil airport and he left in a private car,” one UK resident flight passenger, who did not want to be named in discussion of a “sensitive” issue told Rudaw English.
From a Sulaimani hotel where some of the passengers are being quarantined, flight passenger Dr. Mohammed Ali confirmed the incident.
“There was uproar when the man was just driven away and some of the passengers confronted the officials about why he left,” Dr. Ali, a political science lecturer at the University of Sulaimani told Rudaw English via WhatsApp.
Ali said he confronted an official, who introduced himself as the deputy head of Erbil airport protocol.
The official said an arrangement had been by the Sulaimani administration for the individual in question to be treated as an exception and privately driven back to the province.
Concerns about the flight were brewing before it had even left its London runway, one passenger told Rudaw English from post-flight quarantine.
Jam-packed conditions on board the flight were conducive to spread of the virus had anyone been carrying it, said passenger Yousif Ali Dawudi, who was returning to Erbil with his wife from medical treatment in Europe.
“The conditions on board the flight were terrible, I was jammed up against other passengers,” said Dr. Dawudi, a university lecturer. “Even if I did not have the virus, I am sure I caught it on that flight.”
Dawudi said he “did not see or hear” the call for a Halat or him being taken to a private car, but he did not rule out the possibility of the incident.
At Erbil’s airport, passengers who were from Erbil and Duhok provinces were separated and driven towards their homes. For those bound for Sulaimani, “five mini buses were waiting for us, with three ambulances and a police car, to drive us to Digala checkpoint [between Erbil and Sulaimani],” Ali said.
At the checkpoint, one passenger suggested to Dr Ali that he make phone calls to powerful officials to avoid going into quarantine with everyone else.
Ali said at least seven passengers disappeared on the way from Erbil airport to the Harme Motel on Sulaimani’s 60 Meter road, where he and other passengers are being quarantined.
The unnamed passenger Rudaw English first spoke to said passengers who had been on board the buses when they departed the airport where nowhere to be seen as he disembarked.
“When I got off from the minibus at Sanaria checkpoint [on the outskirts of Sulaimani], I could no longer see four of the passengers who had been on the buses with us,” the passenger, a UK resident said.
But a Sulaimani health official dismissed passenger claims that some had been able to sneak their way off the Sulaimani-bound journey to two-week quarantine.
"No one has disappeared,” Sulaimani Health Department deputy head Dr. Hersh Saed Salim told Rudaw English. As proof of their quarantine, Dr. Salim offered that Sulaimani health authorities “have kept the passports of all those who have returned from London [to the province] with us until they finish their 14-day quarantine."
Confusion may have arisen over their destinations as some have been allowed to undergo quarantine at home, Salim suggested.
"Some people prefer to self-isolate themselves in a flat, a house or a farm they own, and we let them do it on the condition that they must be alone until their 14-day long quarantine is over," he explained.
Sulaimani health officials “regularly visit” those quarantined irrespective of their location, performing health check-ups and conducting testing “to make sure they are not carrying the virus," Salim said.
"No one escapes our processes."
Rudaw English understands that Sulaimani province’s prosecutor's office is investigating the matter.
Additional reporting by Zhelwan Z. Wali
Rudaw English spoke to two of around 190, mostly Kurdish passengers who boarded flight TW921 from London Stansted to Erbil on Friday night, which arrived in the Kurdistan Region capital on Saturday morning.
Both passengers Rudaw English spoke to claim that a fellow traveler was whisked away from the Erbil International Airport terminal in a private vehicle, while a number of others disappeared from chartered buses on the drive to Sulaimani.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has taken stringent measures since early March to curb the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Region, quarantining thousands of passengers returning from neighboring countries and Europe in line with international health standards.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and several European countries have applauded the relative success of KRG measures in isolating the Region and minimizing the outbreak's impact.
But despite the stringency of the measures – and assurances by the KRG that they apply universally – some of the Region’s residents have managed to tap into their connections and avoid the obligatory quarantine for arrivals from overseas, putting the KRG’s success story in jeopardy.
In mid-March, a KRG official who returned from Germany and refused to be quarantined at Erbil airport because of his position of authority tested positive for COVID-19 some five days later in Duhok.
The Asayesh security forces fired the individual in question and vowed to crack down on cronyist use of powerful connections in their continued battle against spread of the virus.
The flight, for which tickets set each passenger back over £600, arrived at Erbil International Airport at around 7 am on Saturday, after transiting through Antalya in Turkey.
At Erbil’s airport, medical workers tested the temperature of all the arrivals without exception. But as immigration officers took away passenger passports, an exclusive passenger call was issued, two passengers told Rudaw English.
“A man by the name of Halat was called for through the loudspeaker at Erbil airport and he left in a private car,” one UK resident flight passenger, who did not want to be named in discussion of a “sensitive” issue told Rudaw English.
From a Sulaimani hotel where some of the passengers are being quarantined, flight passenger Dr. Mohammed Ali confirmed the incident.
“There was uproar when the man was just driven away and some of the passengers confronted the officials about why he left,” Dr. Ali, a political science lecturer at the University of Sulaimani told Rudaw English via WhatsApp.
Ali said he confronted an official, who introduced himself as the deputy head of Erbil airport protocol.
The official said an arrangement had been by the Sulaimani administration for the individual in question to be treated as an exception and privately driven back to the province.
Concerns about the flight were brewing before it had even left its London runway, one passenger told Rudaw English from post-flight quarantine.
Jam-packed conditions on board the flight were conducive to spread of the virus had anyone been carrying it, said passenger Yousif Ali Dawudi, who was returning to Erbil with his wife from medical treatment in Europe.
“The conditions on board the flight were terrible, I was jammed up against other passengers,” said Dr. Dawudi, a university lecturer. “Even if I did not have the virus, I am sure I caught it on that flight.”
Dawudi said he “did not see or hear” the call for a Halat or him being taken to a private car, but he did not rule out the possibility of the incident.
At Erbil’s airport, passengers who were from Erbil and Duhok provinces were separated and driven towards their homes. For those bound for Sulaimani, “five mini buses were waiting for us, with three ambulances and a police car, to drive us to Digala checkpoint [between Erbil and Sulaimani],” Ali said.
At the checkpoint, one passenger suggested to Dr Ali that he make phone calls to powerful officials to avoid going into quarantine with everyone else.
Ali said at least seven passengers disappeared on the way from Erbil airport to the Harme Motel on Sulaimani’s 60 Meter road, where he and other passengers are being quarantined.
The unnamed passenger Rudaw English first spoke to said passengers who had been on board the buses when they departed the airport where nowhere to be seen as he disembarked.
“When I got off from the minibus at Sanaria checkpoint [on the outskirts of Sulaimani], I could no longer see four of the passengers who had been on the buses with us,” the passenger, a UK resident said.
But a Sulaimani health official dismissed passenger claims that some had been able to sneak their way off the Sulaimani-bound journey to two-week quarantine.
"No one has disappeared,” Sulaimani Health Department deputy head Dr. Hersh Saed Salim told Rudaw English. As proof of their quarantine, Dr. Salim offered that Sulaimani health authorities “have kept the passports of all those who have returned from London [to the province] with us until they finish their 14-day quarantine."
Confusion may have arisen over their destinations as some have been allowed to undergo quarantine at home, Salim suggested.
"Some people prefer to self-isolate themselves in a flat, a house or a farm they own, and we let them do it on the condition that they must be alone until their 14-day long quarantine is over," he explained.
Sulaimani health officials “regularly visit” those quarantined irrespective of their location, performing health check-ups and conducting testing “to make sure they are not carrying the virus," Salim said.
"No one escapes our processes."
Rudaw English understands that Sulaimani province’s prosecutor's office is investigating the matter.
Additional reporting by Zhelwan Z. Wali