After the victims came forward with the allegations, lone women will now be able to request being chaperoned by female security staff during their hotel quarantine. The decision has come into effect in an attempt from the Department of Health and Social Care to clamp down on potential sexual harassment.
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If a female guard is unavailable for the task, lone women completing their £1,750 isolation period in government approved institutions would then be escorted by two male attendants.
Sexually assaulted by guards
26-year-old Brittany Dodds told the BBC that during her mandatory isolation period, she received a string of messages from a G4S guard in Heathrow's Radisson Blu Edwardian hotel in May.
One of the most alarming messages she received came during her fourth day of when the guard wrote to her saying 'this evening I'll come.' The South African lawyer proceeded to barricade her door with bags as he repeatedly knocked on the door. In a statement, Dodds said:
At this point I was shaking and had no words because I knew that he was now following me.
Another woman, a 23-year-old medical student from Manchester, reported similar terrifying encounters with a guard who was tasked to watch over her during her hotel quarantine. She explained having had been physically assaulted by a guard who was meant to be taking her on an exercise break. The guard allegedly grabbed her arm and asked if she had a boyfriend before showing her to a group of his colleagues who laughed at her.
Allegations taken seriously
Since, the numerous accounts have been reported, a government spokesman said:
Sexual harassment and abuse are abhorrent—and all allegations of this are taken extremely seriously. We are doing our upmost to ensure every person in managed quarantine gets the support they need and we're urgently working to investigate complaints of this nature.
We expect hotels to do everything they can to keep people safe and to address concerns raised by guests, as well as raising with us where needed.
And further added:
We will not hesitate to take immediate action to suspend staff where appropriate and report to the police if necessary.
