Does Britain Travel Red-List Justify Placement of Pakistan?
Philippines, Pakistan, Kenya, and Bangladesh are four new additions to the list as a measure to protect Britons against new variants of coronavirus including the one mutated in the UK
United Kingdom (UK) has put Pakistan on its travel red list and skipped several countries which are in an abysmal condition compared to the South Asian nation, a move that is considered unjustified, partial and errant to facts and figures.
Philippines, Pakistan, Kenya, and Bangladesh are four new additions to the travel red list as a measure to protect Britons against new variants of coronavirus including the one mutated in the UK.
Under the ban, the entry of Pakistanis has been banned in the UK except for those who hold dual nationality.
The dual-nationals will be allowed to travel to England from April 9. Still, the returning Britons will be liable to spend 10 days in isolation and they would have to bear accommodation expenses too.
Important travel update: 🇵🇰 will be added to the 🇬🇧’s red list of travel ban countries from 9 April👇 pic.twitter.com/HVRyp9xEzp
— Christian Turner (@CTurnerFCDO) April 2, 2021
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However, the measure has provoked Pakistanis who view it as biased and political.
Britain refrained from including several European countries such as Germany, France, and Italy where the tally of daily cases is staying around 20,000 while in neighboring India, the tally of daily cases is staying around 70,000 figure.
These countries still enjoy exemption from the red list and UK officials said they did not plan to place them soon.
However, UK decided to impose a ban on Pakistan which is reporting around 4,000 cases daily even during the third wave of the pandemic.
Even Pakistani-origin British MP Naz Shah sees the travel ban as unjust and wrote a letter to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, pointing out some important facts as to why the ban appears ‘unfair’.
Why aren’t countries which have significant more cases, including the South African variant, not on the red list too? Why #Pakistan and not France which has 10 times more cases. I’ve been raising this for weeks and still no answers from @MattHancock or @DominicRaab ? https://t.co/jsq8VsBfU1 pic.twitter.com/fn39l3V6Z1
— Naz Shah MP 💙 (@NazShahBfd) April 2, 2021
Pakistan Planning Minister Asad Umar also expressed doubts if the UK’s decision was based on foreign policy.
Every country has a right to take decisions to safeguard the health of their citizens. However, the recent decision by UK govt to add some countries including Pakistan on the red list raises a legitimate question whether choice of countries is based on science or foreign policy pic.twitter.com/BAzaW1Lc8l
— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) April 3, 2021
Meanwhile, Pakistanis have also expressed displeasure on getting placed on the travel red list by the UK which they deem as totally unjustified.
