The Federal Government on Sunday faulted the travel ban placed on Nigeria and other countries by the United Kingdom government, alleging that most of the in-bound passengers that tested positive for COVID-19 were from the UK government.
The Nigerian government also ruled out the possibility of limiting foreign travelers from visiting Nigeria despite travel bans on the country by Canada, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Osagie Ehanire, the Minister of Health, who said this on Sunday, described as unfortunate the knee-jerk reaction of some countries to the Omicron strain.
He stressed that even the World Health Organization (WHO) recently said that countries should focus more on teamwork rather than shutting down borders.
Ehanire said: “At the moment we have no plans restricting anybody coming from another country.”
The WHO had two weeks ago designated the omicron variant as a variant of concern. The NCDC also published last week that the country had confirmed three cases of the variant. Before this, the Canadian government had said that it found two individuals with the variant who had travel history to Nigeria.
On Saturday night, the UK published 21 cases of the omicron variant which were linked to Nigeria. It announced that it would, from Monday (today), restrict all flights emanating from Nigeria.
It also suspended all pending visa applications in Nigeria due to the ban on flights from Nigeria due to the Omicron variant.
In a statement on Sunday, the commission said, “To support the UK Government’s aim to protect public health from COVID-19 and associated variants of concern, UK Visas and Immigration will pause making decisions on visitor visa applications in all red list countries, including Nigeria, until travel restrictions are lifted.
“If you apply for a visit visa in a red list country and you meet the UK Immigration Rules, your application will be paused. You will not receive a decision on your visit visa application whilst red list travel restrictions remain in place. You will not be able to request a refund of your visa fee once you have given your biometrics at a Visa Application Centre. If you already hold a valid visit visa and are intending to travel to England as a visitor from a red list country, you will not be allowed to enter.”
The UK said there are only very limited exemptions to travel and entry requirements for critical workers and medical and compassionate cases.”
