Here’s a glimpse of what went around surrounding international travel and the UK since the new year.
UAE bans unvaccinated citizens from international travel
The United Arab Emirates will ban all unvaccinated citizens from travelling abroad from January 10.
The announcement came from the state news agency WAM, citing the foreign ministry & the National Emergency Crisis and the Disaster Management Authority.
The report also revealed that double jabbed citizens would be required to take a booster shot to be eligible for international travel.
England reaches an unfortunate high in new cases!
England reported 162,572 new cases of Covid-19 on Saturday, up from 160,276 the previous day.
With the revelation of these figures come the advisory words of health secretary Sajid Javid, who says that the UK must be ready to “live alongside” Covid in 2022.
He also said that the record-breaking wave of the Omicron variant would “test the limits of finite NHS capacity even more than a typical winter”.
According to the government, a further 154 people had died in England within 28 days of testing positive for Covid.
Brexit ruins Spain holiday?
It goes without saying that a holiday to Spain is a popular getaway for Britons in need of winter sun. However, Brexit seems to be standing in the way!
It all started when Aya Shillingford planned a New Year’s Eve trip with her partner & friends. She made it as far as the plane only to be informed that her passport was no longer valid.
Aya had planned to fly to Tenerife on December 30 and return to the UK on January 8.
She had booked the trip and was all set for the journey. She made it through security effortlessly and even boarded her Jet2 flight.
But she was removed from the plane when security sought her out & told her passport was invalid. She was then forced to cancel her holiday at the last minute and now risks losing up to £2,000.
Aya said: “We had arrived at the airport in good time, made it through security and dropped off our bags.
Two members of staff – at security and at the gate for the flight – had already checked our passports and not raised any issue.
But when we got on the flight, suddenly there was a big commotion.
A Jet2 staff member took my passport and said, ‘I’m sorry, but you can’t fly; this was issued over 10 years ago.
Then we were frog-marched off the plane and back to the airport. Everyone was staring at us.”
The issue was that Aya’s passport was issued more than ten years ago – this made it invalid for travel to the EU.
British Passports used to be valid up to their date of expiry when the UK was in the EU. However, since Brexit, Britons have been subscribed to a different set of rules. On the government’s website, it is stated that “Your passport must be less than 10 years old on the day you enter” (check the ‘date of issue). It also states “Your passport must be valid for at least three months after the day you plan to leave (check the ‘expiry date’).”
Britons can no longer travel to the European Union until their passport’s Expiry date.
On the bright side, however, they can still go to Canada, the US and other countries around the world.
Unfortunately for Aya, this change meant that she was unable to go through with her planned getaway and be denied a refund.
Here’s what a spokesperson for Jet2 said:
“We always follow Government advice relating to passport validity, and we remind customers to check the validity of their passport in our pre-departure communications.
We also point them to our Travel Requirements page on our website, where they can find more information on how to ensure that their passport is valid for travel and in line with Government advice.
Unfortunately, Ms Shillingford’s passport was not valid for travel, and our teams noticed this before boarding.
We would like to apologise to Ms Shillingford for this experience.”
India’s daily cases rise!
You might want to hold on to that idea of visiting India.
India has reported 22.775 new infections over the past 24 hours, adding to the concerns over the rising number of cases.
The data indicate that vastly populated cities, such as the national capital New Delhi, Financial hub Mumbai and Kolkata, are seeing some of the highest peaks.
That’s our international travel round-up for the week! Despite everything, we hope you’re all feeling optimistic about 2022 – here’s hoping things change for the better.
