Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury has urged the British government to remove Nigeria, South Africa, and other African countries from its travel red list.
Travel restrictions were recently imposed on some African countries over fears of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus by the British government, drawing harsh criticisms from the Nigerian government who had described the ban as “punitive, indefensible and discriminatory.”
The Archbishop who echoed the words of Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the UK, Ambassador Sarafa Isola, said the UK government should not fall into practices of “travel apartheid” amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Archbishop explained that it was wrong, immoral even, to impose punishment on honest countries that do not hide their discoveries surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
He tasked the countries to strive for vaccine equity and condemned the hoarding of doses, insisting that the excess of the COVID-19 vaccine doses should be donated to countries that needed it the most.
“With Omicron set to become the dominant variant in the UK, I appeal to the British government to remove Nigeria and South Africa from the red list – together with all other countries currently on it,” the Archbishop wrote on Twitter.
“We must find fair and effective approaches for those who are vaccinated and tested to enter the UK. I agree with the Nigerian High Commissioner to the UK – we cannot have ‘travel apartheid’.”
“The only route out of this pandemic is vaccine equity. We must end vaccine nationalism and stockpiling. We must get vaccines distributed in countries that need them the most. The choice is vaccine nationalism or human solidarity,” the Archbishop added.
