Airport Authority Under Fire Over Transit Group Saga

Airport Authority officials are coming under fire over their handling of a group of transit passengers who arrived from Dubai and stayed at the airport for days before being moved to a quarantine centre.

Reports say one of them has shown symptoms of Covid-19 and has been shifted to a hospital.

An infectious disease expert, Dr Leung Chi-chiu, said the handling of the 10 mainland passengers who were stranded in the airport’s restricted area for five days due to restrictions on transiting was “absolutely not ideal”.

He told RTHK’s Millennium programme that the authorities should conduct a thorough review of the incident.

Leung, who chairs the Hong Kong Medical Association's advisory committee on communicable diseases, warned authorities against relaxing border controls before coming up with emergency contingency plans.

He said authorities should have made sure contingency plans were in place before transit flights resumed, for example, on how to quarantine sick people, and whether they should be sent back to where they flew in from, or where their visas were issued.

Pro-government legislator Yan Chan, who also spoke on the programme, said the airline should explain why it allowed transit passengers to board its plane knowing full well that transit to the mainland is not allowed by Hong Kong at the moment.

She said the Airport Authority also owes the public an explanation as to why the passengers were allowed to roam around inside the restricted area, and put staff at risk, for so many days before they were finally quarantined.

In a statement sent to RTHK, Emirates said it was working with the airport authorities and other officials to resolve the issue. The airline said one person was flown back to Dubai on Wednesday, four days after the group arrived in Hong Kong. The rest refused to go back.

They had flown to the SAR from Dubai last Saturday, without having been issued any boarding passes as required to their intended destinations in the mainland.

Currently, the mainland doesn't accept flights that transit through Hong Kong.

This left the group stranded in the restricted area of the airport because they are not eligible to enter Hong Kong either.