Málaga (Spain) (AFP)

Fully vaccinated in Spain where she lives, Joan Corrigan thought that she would finally be able to return without problems to see her family.

Before learning that her vaccine was not recognized in the United Kingdom and that she would therefore have to observe a quarantine.

"I thought I could go home safely but I just understood that I was going to be considered as not vaccinated at all", explains the forty-something who settled in Malaga, in the south of Spain, a few weeks barely before the start of the pandemic.

British authorities do not recognize vaccines administered abroad.

The 41-year-old teacher will therefore have to spend the first ten days of her vacation in isolation and pay up to 300 euros for PCR tests.

"I really want to see my family", she explains, deeming "terribly cruel" to ask her to observe a quarantine, after these "agonizing months spent alone".

And his sentiment is shared by tens of thousands of British expats living in Spain or the rest of Europe.

As most of the European countries are classified orange by the British authorities, these expatriates must go into quarantine on their arrival in the United Kingdom and prove that they have paid in advance for at least two PCR tests, or face heavy fines.

And the good news of the lifting of the quarantine for those fully vaccinated on July 19 quickly fell like a breath for expats, with this rule only applying to people vaccinated by the British health service, the NHS.

"They are the same vaccines, but only those who have received the injection via the NHS can travel," laments David Young, 40, an employee of an IT group.

"Someone like me who has had Pfizer, a vaccine recognized in the UK, however, cannot easily travel to the UK because my vaccination certificate is simply not recognized."

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- "Horribly dear" -

"It's a disaster, really, the cost of getting back to the UK is outrageous," says Tristram Congreve, 57 and manager of a bicycle rental shop in Malaga, who canceled the trek to Scotland he had planned to do this month.

"The flights were approaching 80 pounds but all the Covid tests reached 450 pounds, in addition to the quarantine which would have complicated things," he regrets.

"Freedom Day" - as July 19 is dubbed which saw a lot of restrictions lifted in England - "mostly changed things for Brits living in Britain, but for people who want to return home seeing their relatives, one does not have the impression that it has changed anything ".

Many angry expatriate Britons have had to give up coming home for the summer.

"It makes no sense! The contradictions are totally bewildering," fulminates Mike Battle, 49, who has lived in Spain for 27 years and threw in the towel.

"It affects people's lives, their businesses, families and these decisions are made haphazardly without real logic. Stupidity seems to have become the norm."

Corrigan, she is about to leave for Belfast as the number of cases explodes again in Spain.

"I am divided: on the one hand, I hope they will relax these ridiculous rules for expats. And on the other hand I am terrified that Spain will be classified red" by the United Kingdom. , which would oblige him to pay on his arrival a ten-day stay in a hotel authorized to welcome him for his quarantine.

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"The next few days are going to be very, very stressful."

© 2021 AFP