SA Prez Ramaphosa speaks to Boris Johnson, seeks nation's removal from UK travel red list

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has held a formal discussion with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, seeking the removal of South Africa from the travel ban list in an attempt to ease limitations on Africa’s international air travel amid the COVID-19. This comes as the British government had banned the overseas arrivals into England from the “red list” countries that it prepared, which included South Africa and Brazil at the beginning of the year. It was Prime Minister Boris Johnson who announced the decision of taking a drastic measure over concerns of the spread of the new highly contagious and deadlier variants of coronavirus in the UK. 

On Thursday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told a press conference that he has “put South Africa's case” to Johnson, “which he understood very well,” for easing the travel restrictions for Africa. Britain’s red list requires the travellers from South Africa to mandatorily undergo a 10-day quarantine when returning home,even if they are fully vaccinated and have a negative RT-PCR report. “We hope for a positive outcome when the subject comes up for review in the coming days by their scientists,” Ramaphosa told a conference, according to multiple reports. 

The UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office [FCDO] wrote in its travel advisory on Friday that it “advises against all but essential travel to the whole of South Africa based on the current assessment of COVID-19 risks.” 

UK removes Kenya, Egypt from travel ban list

Even as on 12 September, South African President Ramaphosa eased the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions due to the dip in the infections that were now under significant control, the UK advised the Britons to restrict all but only essential travel to South Africa owing to the risk of the South African variant spread. The UK, although, recently removed Kenya and Egypt among eight other countries from the “red travel” list. UK’s Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps announced in September that Britain was removing Kenya, Egypt, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Oman, Bangladesh, Turkey, and the Maldives from the ban. He added that more updates will follow making the COVID-19 testing easier for travel from 4 October for other countries.

South African leader, although, expressed disappointment at the UK’s decision to keep his country on the travel ban list. He told a presser that the British scientists were concerned about the Beta variant of the COVID-19, which now comprises of a very minute fraction of cases across Africa, and that the Delta variant is overwhelmingly dominant. 

“We’ll also be introducing a new simplified system for international travel from Monday, October 4, replacing the current approach with a single red list and simplified measures for the rest of the world —  striking the right balance to manage the public health risk as No.1 priority,” UK’s Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps had stated at a press briefing.