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How strict are the UK’s border controls compared to everyone else?

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Author: James Morris

“We have among the toughest border regimes now anywhere in the world,” Boris Johnson said at the Downing Street press conference on Wednesday.

“We’re restricting as much as we can any risk of importing new infection into this country, without totally secluding the UK economy.”

But does the UK really have one of the “toughest” set of coronavirus border restrictions in the world?

A quick glance at this map, by the respected Our World in Data website, would indicate there are at least two dozen countries with the toughest possible “total border closures” (in dark red), from Canada and New Zealand to Vietnam and South Africa. The UK is not one of them.

(Our World in Data)
(Our World in Data)

Instead, Britain, like dozens of other countries in the world, is described as having the second toughest “ban on high-risk regions” (in light red).

And the following two images separate the countries with “total border closures” and those with “bans on high-risk regions”.

(Our World in Data)
(Our World in Data)
(Our World in Data)
(Our World in Data)

So what are the UK’s border measures?

Anyone travelling to one of the four UK nations from abroad must provide evidence of a negative COVID-19 test result before departure.

Travellers must also provide journey and contact details before arrival, while everyone must self-isolate for 10 days upon arrival.

Furthermore, there is the government’s so-called “red list” of countries, which forms the basis of ministers’ talk of “tough measures”.

Foreign nationals who have been in or through any of the countries on this list are banned from entering the UK.

As of Thursday, there were 33 countries on the red list, including Brazil and South Africa, where concerning new variants of COVID-19 have been identified.

However, the travel ban does not apply to UK and Irish nationals, who can still enter the UK if they have been in any of these countries in the past 10 days. Upon arrival, they have to self-isolate for 10 days along with their household.

Do these measures go far enough?

Since the emergence of new variants, the UK’s border restrictions have become an increasingly important talking point.

Many have argued they have been too lax since the very beginning of the pandemic – home secretary Priti Patel among them.

It emerged last month that Patel had called for the borders to be shut to international visitors in March last year, when infections first began to rapidly spread in the UK, but was overruled by Johnson.

COVID-19: Boris Johnson says it is ‘not practical’ to shut borders as he defends hotel quarantine plan

MPs continue to point out issues with the current restrictions, meanwhile.

On Tuesday, Labour’s Yvette Cooper, chair of the House of Commons home affairs committee, asked why UK nationals who have been in South Africa over the past 10 days can still travel to Britain indirectly and get on public transport upon arrival.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, meanwhile, called for the government to bring in blanket quarantine measures for international arrivals. “The risk is huge if we don’t secure our borders,” he said on Thursday.

What do strict border measures look like in other countries?

As set out above, there are at least 26 countries with tougher restrictions than the UK, so let’s take the example of New Zealand.

New Zealand is one of the few worldwide examples of a country which has controlled the virus. As of Thursday, there had been just 2,313 cases and 25 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, compared to 3,871,825 cases and 109,335 deaths in the UK.

A key part of its strategy has been extremely strict border measures, which mean only New Zealand residents and citizens can enter the country.

Anyone who does enter has to stay in a “managed isolation” room for at least 14 days, and must test negative for COVID before they can re-enter the community.

Boris Johnson, for his part, insisted on Wednesday that it’s “not practical” for the UK to completely shut its borders, given the amount of medicine and food which enters Britain from Europe.

Speaking of ‘managed isolation’ in New Zealand, what’s happened to the UK’s quarantine hotels?

On Wednesday last week, the government announced plans to toughen its “red list” measures with quarantine hotels similar to the “managed isolation” seen in New Zealand.

Under the rules, UK nationals and residents returning from red list countries will be kept in hotels for 10 days to slow the spread of new virus strains.

It took until Thursday, eight days later, for the government to announce when this would come into force: on 15 February. This will be 19 days after the policy was announced.

The Department of Health said it was working “at pace” to roll out managed quarantine facilities in time for British nationals returning to the UK from high-risk destinations.

A spokesman said it had been in discussions with representatives of the aviation, maritime, hotel and hospitality industries, and were continuing to finalise their plans in the run-up to 15 February.

Labour’s shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said the government had been far too slow to act. “It is beyond comprehension that these measures won’t even start until 15 February,” he said.

“We are in a race against time to protect our borders against new COVID strains. Yet hotel quarantine will come into force more than 50 days after the South African strain was discovered.”

The full list of 33 countries believed to have stricter controls than the UK is:

Algeria

Azerbaijan

Belarus

Burundi

Canada

Chad

Colombia

Denmark

Eritrea

Greenland

Hungary

Israel

Japan

Kiribati

Laos

Lesotho

Mongolia

Myanmar

New Zealand

Oman

Palestine

South Africa

Suriname

Thailand

Timor

Tonga

Trinidad and Tobago

Turkmenistan

Uruguay

Vanuatu

Venezuela

Vietnam

Yemen

Source: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/how-strict-uk-covid-border-controls-180515594.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9jLm5ld3Nub3cuY28udWsv&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAG8IlFHiiQOiQAGeZuKsPARi6X4RL8zsaMBB5eyyjSU63R2nKq3qzn9QSPIaHLb6socyejhyyWuxqNk3H_eEurEihC-pvxz-VRvR5JM033xUkcugdh1-HvRTVm7pP9vIHHcwsvDo1WJpYX_oUpscDBiNHoja8f_dwMOE3coNes4g

 

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