EU Council lifts travel restriction on Bahrain, UAE

­TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The European Council yesterday recommended removing all travel restrictions on Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

The recommendation for a gradual lifting of the temporary restrictions on non-essential travel follows a new review.

EU is lifting restrictions considering Bahrain’s overall response to COVID-19, reliability of available information and data sources.

Both Bahrain and UAE, in the recent week, had marked a drop in the number of coronavirus cases. The new decision is in force, effective yesterday.

Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Chile, Jordan, Kuwait, New Zealand, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Ukraine, UAE, Uruguay and Chine, subject to confirmation of reciprocity, are on the EU approved list for non-essential travel.

“Following a review under the recommendation on the gradual lifting of the temporary restrictions on non-essential travel into the EU, the Council updated the list of countries, special administrative regions and other entities and territorial authorities for which travel restrictions should be lifted.

In particular, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates were added to the list,” notes a press release of the Council, issued today. The Council said it would continue to review the list every two weeks.

The Council also said that the list is not binding, and the member states are free to remove the entry ban for travellers from countries that are not listed. The Council added Chile, Kuwait and Rwanda to the list and removed Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina on September 23.