Pakistan has asked the British government to remove its name from England’s “red” list, Pakistan High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Moazzam Ahmed Khan said Thursday, following the latest review by Britain of its travel curbs, a private TV channel reported.
The envoy said the coronavirus situation is better in Pakistan, except for Karachi, “and our government has done tremendous work in its COVID-19 response”.”Pakistan’s coronavirus response has been acknowledged globally,” he said. The Economist, in a report, had ranked Pakistan at number three out of 50 countries who performed well in controlling the COVID-19 spread.The British government should “appreciate Pakistan’s coronavirus response, review its decisions, and consider PakistaYasminQureshi and Naz Shah were of the view n’s recommendations,” he added.
The passengers on the red list require a costly 10-day hotel quarantine on arrival. Georgia, Mexico, and France’s Indian Ocean territories of La Reunion, and Mayotte have also been moved onto the red list.
Moreover, passengers from red list countries need to take a COVID-19 test before they enter England – children aged 10 and under do not need to take it.The changes put India, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, and France on England’s so-called “amber” list of countries, under its traffic light system for arriving travellers.
The government last month eased the rules to allow people from amber countries fully jabbed with a vaccine approved by regulators in the United States and European Union to enter without having to self-isolate.The amber list mandates virus tests before and after arrival for those jabbed in those territories.
Meanwhile, All Parties Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Pakistan chief YasminQureshi and MP for Bradford West, Naz Shah, slammed the British government for keeping Pakistan on the red list and removing India, Qatar, and other countries from it.British lawmakers that coronavirus rates in Pakistan were averaging around 4,500 per day, around five times lower than the United Kingdom but in India, where the delta variant emerged and precipitated Britain’s third wave, cases are at around 40,000 per day.
Pakistan has done relatively well compared to its neighbours and has managed to do this whilst avoiding a lockdown, Qureshi said.”I am dismayed at the government’s decision to keep Pakistan on the travel red list whilst removing other countries in the Middle East and South Asia region. Pakistan has no variant of concern reported and cases remain relatively low when compared with India and the UK yet is punished unnecessarily,” she said.
“These changes point to one thing and one thing only – government politicking. The government has opted to remove India now to best prepare them for trade negotiations and is not based on data nor science.”
“These travel restrictions are wreaking havoc with people across the United Kingdom. The Pakistani diaspora totals around 1.1mn in the UK and I have been inundated with correspondence which details students unable to access their courses because of punitive and extortionate quarantine costs and children unable to see their often sick parents and grandparents,” she said.