Many arrivals from France on Sunday ended up in a three-hour queue before they were able to collect PCR test kits for Covid-19.
People at the back of the queue believed the issue was due to a lot of travellers not completing the Travel Tracker correctly, and this view was endorsed by Covid-19 response programme director Richard Evans, who said that a lot of people arriving at the port were islanders who had failed to fill out the online form.
Following a Guernsey Press article several people got in touch to express their dismay at criticism of passengers when the fault lay with the Travel Tracker itself.
‘The tracker had no reference to returners from France,’ wrote one woman. ‘I was advised at the testing centre, by a member of staff, to say we had returned from French Guiana to circumvent the fault. Additional hacks were needed to finally complete the tracker and pay.’
Another said: ‘I was trying eight hours before sailing to correctly complete this but obviously the Travel Tracker team failed to detect this.’
A third was upset at how some arrivals had been made to look: ‘The delays were created by the States, not the thoughtless, lazy passengers, which is how we’ve been portrayed.’
Mr Evans said he was made aware of the error and it was corrected within half an hour of his finding out about it. At the time he had not realised how many passengers had
been affected.
‘Since making my initial comments in the media about those delays, I’ve been made aware of passengers experiencing difficulties earlier over the weekend,’ he said.
‘This has been investigated further and we discovered this error first occurred the evening before. It therefore will have affected a number of passengers’ ability to complete the Travel Tracker. I, on behalf of my team, fully apologise for this error, for the long wait at the port and for not identifying the problem sooner.’
He said it was put down to people not completing the tracker because that was an issue which the team sees every day.
‘Travellers not completing the form before their journey is an ongoing challenge we’ve had to contend with for months, one that is coupled with the abuse our staff often experience when those travellers find they’re delayed at the port.’
But having looked more carefully at the circumstances on Sunday he said it was clearly unfair to put the responsibility on passengers in this case.
‘It’s our team that need to accept the responsibility and for that I apologise.
'Our aim is, and always has been, to work with travellers to make the process as safe, smooth and welcoming as possible.’
They wanted people to enjoy their time in Guernsey ‘from the moment they get off the boat or plane.
‘In this case, that didn’t happen and I’m sorry to those passengers who had to wait so long as a result.’
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