A grandfather has called for Manx border restrictions to be loosened to allow immediate family members to visit the island.

Dave Smith, of Derry, Northern Ireland, has been separated from his children and grandchildren here since the emergency border restrictions were imposed in March.

Mr Smith has emailed the Chief Minister to express frustration at the island’s border policy, which currently lets key workers enter, but not immediate family members.

He told the Manx Independent: ’My biggest case against the government is the fact that they’re allowing other people in, these essential workers that aren’t essential at all.

’Yet immediate families are not being classed as essential.

’Parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters are essential for family wellbeing.

’People wanting to move to the island are given priority over families.’

He spoke of the recent case of five visiting welders from England, who had been granted key worker exemption certificates to carry out repairs on the Manx Electric Railway.

The five were jailed for 14 days because they broke Manx emergency Covid-19 laws by not travelling straight to their accommodation after arriving on the ferry - with one later testing positive for Covid-19 while in prison at Jurby.

Mr Smith has even been searching for alternate ways to be permitted to travel to the island so he can be reunited with his family, saying: ’I’ve looked into renting a house on the island, applying for a job on the island, even travelling to Guernsey, self isolating for two weeks and then travelling to the island - but the cost of that was horrendous.’

He added: ’The Isle of Man government is just all talk right now. It’s been seven months like this and they haven’t done anything.’

Mr Smith called the Manx government’s efforts towards allowing immediate family access to the island ’lackadaisical’, pointing out that the coronavirus pandemic makes no difference to UN human rights conventions regarding the separation of families - of which he says the government is in direct violation.

He said: ’Covid is creating mental stress across the world, can you imagine what it’s doing to families?

’Can you imagine the trauma that they are creating, especially for young children?’

He argues that as level 4 allows Manx residents to come and go freely, the government’s claim that restrictions on immediate family protect the island from Covid is ’null and void’.

He believes it would be safe to allow immediate family to visit, explaining: ’We’re not talking about opening the floodgates.

’We’re not talking about thousands of people.

’It would be a limited amount of people, it’s manageable for the Isle of Man government.

’Testing could be set up, like they’ve done in Guernsey.

’The Manx government could have put in place procedures for family members coming to the island just as they did with returning Manx residents.

’We need the Manx Government to step up admit it was wrong and that immediate family will be given the same entitlement and rights to enter the island as does a returning Manx resident.

’Test people on their arrival, give the businesses on the island a well-deserved boost in business, I’m sure there are many accommodation businesses on the island willing to house immediate family for the self-isolation.’

Asked whether his family could visit him in the UK, he said: ’A lot are fearful to leave the island, you might not want your family to travel across to the UK to come and see you.’