EU member states advised to lift ban from select countries

Monday, November 1, 2021

The European Union Council recently advised EU Member States to lift entry ban on non-essential travel from Argentina, Colombia, Namibia and Peru as soon as possible. The recommendation has been issued on Friday, October 29, following a review of the EU’s list of epidemiologically safe third countries, to which all four have been added.

The EU council mentioned in a statement that following a review under the recommendation on the gradual lifting of the temporary restrictions on non-essential travel into the EU, the council updated the list of countries, special administrative regions and other entities and territorial authorities for which travel restrictions should be lifted.

It was also mentioned that in particular, Argentina, Colombia, Namibia and Peru were added to the list. Data by the World Health Organization show that all four countries have recorded a low number of COVID-19 cases in recent days.

In Namibia, for example, which is home to 2.541 million residents, only nine new cases have been marked within the last 24 hours. Whereas in Peru, which counts a population of 32.97 million, 793 new cases have been recorded.

As per Argentina and Colombia, both of which have larger populations – 45.38 million and 50.88 million respectively – the number of cases recorded is 1,415 and 1,428 in the last 24 hours. According to the council of EU, the Member States are now strongly advised to remove entry restrictions for countries such as-

Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Jordan, Kuwait, Namibia, New Zealand, Peru, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay and China(subject to confirmation of reciprocity).

The travel ban should also be lifted for the special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong, and Macao, as well as for Taiwan, as per the council. However, since the list is not legally binding, the Member States are free to remove the entry restrictions at the external borders for the residents of countries that are not listed above or to impose restrictions on arrivals from the countries above.

Before the update of October 29, the council had updated the list on October 8, by adding Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Prior to that, the Council advised the Member States to remove the entry restrictions for the residents of Chile, Kuwait and Rwanda and reimpose the restrictions on travellers from Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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