Edinburgh dad caught up in quarantine row over ten-year-old son says he has had no chance to put his case to authorities

An Edinburgh father caught up in a row over his ten-year-old son being forced to quarantine in a hotel says he has been given no way of putting his case to the authorities.

Antonio Caraballo and his son Sami, 10.

Antonio Caraballo had expected his son Sami to be allowed to self-isolate at home after making the journey alone from Finland to Edinburgh, but on arrival Sami was told he would have to isolate in a quarantine hotel. Children under 11 are exempt from having to be tested for Covid-19 on arrival to Scotland, but not from the Scottish Government’s hotel quarantine requirement.

Mr Caraballo, a key worker in the oil and gas industry with Ineos, felt he had no choice but to join Sami in the hotel at a cost of £2075.

Three days on, the pair have not had any contact with the authorities.

Mr Caraballo said: "I haven’t heard anything from the government. I haven’t been given a phone number to call or website to visit.”

He said Edinburgh South Labour MSP Ian Murray and his MSP colleague Daniel Johnson were “on the case”. “They have been excellent,” he said. “But no-one seems to want to own the situation. It’s quite shocking – no-one comes to say ‘This is the situation’. I’ve been asking the folks providing security who is the manager but I just get blank faces.

"We came here on Saturday so that’s been three days, but I don’t have a phone number to call to understand my situation.

"It’s shameful for the government to behave this way – to put people in a place like this and throw away the key, which is the way I feel. If I could speak to somebody who could explain the situation and I could try to put my points across, that’s fine, but no-one is being made accountable.”

Mr Caraballo is working from the hotel as best he can.

"My son is gaming with the i-pad but he’s very bored.

"The hotel has been good – they didn’t have a child menu and he wasn’t happy with the food, so he wasn’t eating but they have been very good and cooked a special children’s meal for him – so that’s a positive.”

Sami lives with his mother in Finland and had not seen his father since October, but the quarantine means he will spend ten days of his 14-day trip to Scotland in the hotel, away from his three-year-old sister Amelia whom he also travelled here to visit.

Mr Caraballo said he would pursue the issue even once the quarantine ended. "I’m not going to let it go after it’s solved or not solved. I fear this will be an ongoing situation – how many other families will face the same thing? There should be a process where people can put forward exceptional circumstances, especially for children. It seems incredible.”

Ian Murray has written to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, urging that the case be looked into as a matter of urgency and Sami allowed to quarantine at the family home.

He said: “The quarantine policy is a mess and getting any answers on behalf of families from the Scottish Government is near impossible.

“This is an urgent case involving a ten-year-old child and I hope there is a compassionate solution that can be found.”

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