Politics
Foreign Office relaxes advice for UK travellers to 51 destinations
The Foreign Office is lifting restrictive COVID travel advice for a further 51 countries and territories.
Destinations that are having the “all but essential travel” advice lifted today comprise of former amber list nations such as Jamaica and The Bahamas.
A second stage will see 42 ex-red list countries and territories having the advice removed on Monday, including South Africa, Mexico and the Seychelles (scroll down for the full list).
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With the advice lifted, people will be able to get travel insurance again for those destinations as most insurers use it as a reference point to exclude cover.
The move comes two days after 32 countries and territories, including Fiji, Malaysia and Bangladesh, had the advice lifted as the government aims to simplify travel in the wake of the success of the vaccine rollout, better understanding of the virus and improved public health in those destinations.
The advice was initially put in place due to the COVID situation in those countries and territories and was focused on people departing from the UK.
On Monday, the traffic light system – related to inbound travel to the UK – was dropped in favour of just one red list.
The red list was then reduced to just seven countries on Thursday, with 47 destinations coming off the red list from Monday.
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Countries and territories where ‘all but essential travel’ advice has been lifted today:
The Bahamas, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Jamaica, Martinique, Palau, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Western Sahara.
Countries and territories where ‘all but essential travel’ advice will be lifted on Monday:
Angola, Argentina, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Cape Verde, Chile, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica, Cuba, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Georgia, Guyana, Indonesia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mexico, Mongolia, Montenegro, Mozambique, Myanmar (Burma), Namibia, Nepal, Paraguay, Philippines, Reunion, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Suriname, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Uganda, Uruguay, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
French Polynesia was one of the countries to have its travel advice lifted on Wednesday
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: “These updates make travel abroad easier – boosting trade, tourism and reuniting friends and families.
“I am delighted that the safe reopening of travel allows people to exercise personal responsibility and visit more destinations across the globe.”
The government has said the advice will be reintroduced or not lifted in “exceptional circumstances”, such as if the local healthcare system is overloaded by a domestic COVID outbreak.
Some countries and territories will continue to carry the advice to not travel there apart from essential travel, but it will be because of other circumstances such as instability, not COVID.