Covid-19: Queen's University asked about China-NI flight

Stormont's Economy Committee has written to Queen's University about its decision to charter a flight taking hundreds of students from China to NI.

The direct flight from Beijing arrived in Belfast on 10 January.

All the passengers were required to provide a negative Covid-19 test before departure.

Queen's said it had arranged the "third direct charter flight" from China as it "appreciates international travel can be difficult to arrange at the moment".

The university previously organised two other charter flights from China, which arrived in Belfast in September and October last year.

The committee agreed to write to Queen's to ask it to provide a rationale for chartering the most recent flight during a global pandemic.

The Department of Health has also been asked whether the flight broke the current regulations after the issue was raised at a meeting by DUP MLA Gary Middleton.

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• University bans travel to China due to coronavirus

"It's been raised with me and I share the concerns, given the fact that so much of the learning is being done remotely, can that travel be deemed at this time as essential or necessary travel?" Mr Middleton told the committee.

"We need to get reassurance in terms of all of the health and safety assessments that have been put in place in terms of that travel.

"What I'm proposing is that this committee writes to the Department of Health and to Queen's University and ask that, at a time when we are under these restrictions, within our own communities, is it necessary that such flights are being chartered?" he said.

The first flight arrived in Belfast in September

The university was also asked what advice it sought from the Department of Health.

The chair of the Committee, Sinn Féin MLA Caoimhe Archibald, questioned whether measures would be in place to support students self-isolating.

May have been 'only opportunity' to travel

The university told BBC News NI it had provided the committee with a "clear rationale" for arranging the flight.

"Queen's University is currently only delivering on-campus activity where it is essential and unavoidable and cannot be done remotely or deferred, e.g. clinical skills training, practical classes - a small minority of all teaching," a spokesperson said.

"A significant proportion of students on the charter flight have come to study those subjects where this activity must go ahead if the students are going to be able to complete their course/graduate.

"Given the difficulty of travelling and limited availability of flights, this may have been the only opportunity for these students to travel to Belfast to complete their studies.

"The university liaised with relevant authorities and complied with all Civil Aviation Authority regulations."

The spokesperson added that all the passengers were required to provide a recent negative Covid-19 test and were transported directly to campus and required to self-isolate.

A Department of Health spokesperson said it had received correspondence from the Committee for the Economy and would reply in due course.