Women in Covid hotel quarantine to get access to harassment line

BRITAIN-HEALTH-VIRUS-TRAVEL
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A confidential reporting line will be brought in for women isolating in hotels after reports of security guards sexually harassing guests.

The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) has moved to introduce the hotline after previously saying female guests should be supervised by female guards.

It comes following a slew of complaints made against male security guards at quarantine hotels, BBC News reported.

It is understood that only 10 per cent of security guards at the hotels are women, with female guests claiming to rarely see them.

The DHSC also promised guards would get additional training on how to interact with lone women and set up a complaints team to deal with problems.

However, some women have said they have continued to be harassed by the guards at hotels while isolating.

Lorna Farmer, 28, from Northamptonshire, told BBC News she was pestered by a male guard after arriving at the Hilton Garden Inn at Birmingham airport on July 25.

She said a security guard entered her room asking to see her in her pyjamas and sometimes sat on the floor outside her door if she did not answer immediately.

Ms Farmer claims the man asked her while she was cleaning the room: “Why don’t you put that Hoover down and I’ll come in and entertain you?”.

The guard was removed after she complained to his employers Mitie and she reported the harassment to Northamptonshire police.

Mitie said: “Should a complaint be raised by a guest a full investigation is carried out. In this case, the investigation found that the officer had not followed our procedures and therefore is no longer working on the contract.”

However, the company refused to confirm whether the security guard still worked for Mitie at a different hotel.

The DHSC said: “Sexual harassment or abuse is completely unacceptable and totally abhorrent. We take all such allegations extremely seriously and we expect providers to take firm action - including suspending staff or reporting them to the police where appropriate - as has happened in this case.”

Ms Farmer’s case is just one of many, with 18 women having reported harassment to the BBC in recent months.

West Midlands Victims’ Commissioner Nicky Brennan said: “The government who have given the contract and the security company need to investigate the practices, training and conduct of staff with urgency.

“People who are quarantining in hotels at the orders of the government should not have to feel unsafe when following those rules.

“This would appear to be a problem across the country with security staff in these hotels. It’s worrying for anybody, especially lone women that they could be treated in this way.

“They should not be put in this position by a government which is meant to be keeping them safe.”

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