Dee Snider says that his daughter is one of several hundred American travelers who are stuck in Peru without a means of departure after the country shut its borders in an effort to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
The TWISTED SISTER frontman took to his social media earlier today — three days after Peru’s president Martin Vizcarra issued a 15-day nationwide state of emergency and border closure — to say that he is troubled by the uncertainty of the situation and to express concern that the quarantine could extend beyond 15 days.
In his four-and-a-half-minute video message, Snider said:
“These are really difficult times for everybody all over the world. We’re all struggling at home to make sense of what’s going on and to keep our families and friends safe, to do the right thing. Meanwhile, there are literally thousands of American citizens stuck in foreign countries under quarantine and not being allowed to return home.
Thousands. And I know this because my daughter, Shy, Cheyenne, is one of over eight hundred stuck in Peru right now. The borders have been closed. There are no flights going out, and they’re not being let out. And while my daughter Shy is safe at this time, but she’s in a remote part of Peru, there are plenty down there — [as you can see] on their Facebook pages, ‘Stuck In Peru’, and other outlets. And this goes on all over the world, by the way — people who are not in safe situations, who don’t have the finances and the resources to take care of themselves for extended lengths of time. They’re all tourists. They’re all visitors. Most were on vacations, or journeys, or trips, encouraged by foreign countries to come visit. They did, and now they’re locked in. And my daughter, like I said, she is safe, but we’ve got to do better. We’ve got to help our own.”
He continued:
“I understand that we need to be quarantined; I understand we need to protect our borders; but we should be able to be quarantined within our own countries. And foreign countries should be going out of their way to help foreigners get out of their countries and back home so they can be with their loved ones during these trying times. And they’re not.