Your threats won’t make us reverse travel ban, UK tells Nigeria
The British High Commission says the United Kingdom will not reverse its travel ban on Nigeria because of a threat of retaliation by the federal government.
“The UK Government propose sticking to our standard background lines on whether ‘x’ country will put us on the red list and avoid getting into hypothetical situations,” commission spokesperson Dean Hurlock told Punch on Sunday.
“The UK government has been clear that travel abroad will be different this year and countries may impose border measures at short notice in line with their own coronavirus policies.”
He added that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office travel advice was kept under constant review and asked travellers to continue to check it for entry requirements of the destination they plan to visit.
“Travellers can also sign up for e-mail alerts on GOV.UK to get the latest updates as soon as they happen. We are in regular conversations with other countries about their travel policies,” Hurlock explained.
“The position stated in our press release of last weekend still stands at present.”
In the press release, the UK had said Nigeria would be added to the travel red list from 4 am on December 6 following 21 cases of Omicron variant of COVID-19 reported in England, which had travel history from Nigeria.
“These are temporary measures that have been introduced to prevent further omicron cases from entering the UK and will be examined at the three-week review point on 20 December.”
The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing, had said Omicron cases in the UK had clear links to overseas travel from Nigeria and South Africa.
The Nigerian government disputes this claim and have vowed to impose a travel ban of its own on UK interests.
