United Kingdom has rescinded its earlier decision to include Nigeria and most other African countries on their travel red list.
The government of UK said that all 11 countries including Nigeria will be removed from the UK’s travel red list from 4am on Wednesday.
The affected countries are: Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The red list was reintroduced in late November as a precaution after the emergence of the Omicron variant.
But Health Secretary Sajid Javid said it had spread so widely the rules no longer had much purpose.
“Now that there is community transmission of Omicron in the UK and Omicron has spread so widely across the world, the travel red list is now less effective in slowing the incursion of Omicron from abroad,” he told Parliament.
“Whilst we will maintain our temporary testing measures for international travel we will be removing all 11 countries from the travel red list effective from 4am tomorrow morning.”
Currently, all UK arrivals from red list countries must pay for and self-isolate in a pre-booked, government-approved hotel for 10 days.
Most Nigerian resident in the UK who travelled down for one family function or reunion are trapped in Nigeria and cannot return to the UK to resume their work. The stringent regulation applied by the UK government has made it near impossible for them to return. They have complained of the huge amount of money that they have to cough out for COVID test and for government approved quarantine hotels.
Some travellers have already paid thousands of pounds to stay in government-approved quarantine hotels, and there have been complaints of chaotic organisation and inedible food during their stays.
Mr Javid said he had asked for urgent advice on whether those currently in managed quarantine would be able to leave early.
He also said he was “very persuaded” by calls to reimburse people and hoped to make an announcement soon.
The point of putting countries on the red list was to act quickly to slow the spread of Omicron.
Now it has spread in the community, the government doesn’t think putting people from a limited list of countries in hotels is useful.
It will be welcome news to people with plans to come to the UK from countries like South Africa and Nigeria, or who had delayed their return from those countries.
But it will be frustrating for those who did get caught up in the revival of the red list, which only started about a fortnight ago. Some people currently staying in hotels would like to see the government pay their costs.
The travel industry wants all restrictions removed. Businesses see testing measures as putting a dampener on their recovery. It seems the government is not prepared to go that far, just yet.
The move follows anger from African countries, with the UN describing the ban on non-UK residents entering England as “travel apartheid”.
The travel industry had also warned the restrictions were hurting business.
Tim Alderslade, head of trade group Airlines UK, said emptying the red list made “complete sense” but that the government should also scrap the remaining travel restrictions.
Currently all arrivals, regardless of where they fly from, must take Covid tests within 48 hours of setting off for the UK and PCR tests within two days of their arrival.
“If the red list isn’t necessary, given that Omicron is established here at home, then neither are the costly emergency testing and isolation measures imposed on even fully vaccinated travellers, which again put us completely at odds with the rest of Europe,” he said.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said these testing measures would be reviewed in the first week of January.
“As always, we keep all our travel measures under review and we may impose new restrictions should there be a need to do so to protect public health,” he said on Twitter.
Nigeria and some other African nations had been hit with travel bans from western countries since the Omicron variant was first detected in Southern Africa and Hong Kong in November.
The variant has since spread to at least, 57 countries worldwide.
Although Canada was the first to place a travel ban on Nigeria, of more concern is the one imposed later by the UK.
Nigeria became the 11th country to go on the UK’s Red List for international travel over the discovery of Omicron. All nations currently on that list are African in what has been described as “unfair and racists.”
The UK had claimed that 21 cases of Omicron recorded in England were linked to travellers from Nigeria.
Nigeria’s information minister, Lai Mohammed, described as “discriminatory, unfair, punitive, indefensible, and unjust,” the UK travel ban, with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, last saying it was a “travel apartheid.”