UK promises to stick to its travel ban, as Nigeria threatens to retaliate

The United Kingdom won't be revising the travel ban it has placed on Nigeria and other nations in Africa, in the wake of the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

On Sunday, December 5, 2021, the United Kingdom (UK) placed Nigeria on a travel ban list by suspending visitor visa applications from Africa's most populous nation.

The development arrived just hours after the UK added Nigeria to a travel red list.

Nigeria has threatened to reciprocate by banning flights from the UK, Canada, Argentina and Saudi Arabia.

“As they did to us, if they do not allow our citizens into their countries; who are they coming, as airlines, to pick from our country?

“They are not supposed to come in. I am very sure in the next three days; Monday or Tuesday, all those countries will be put on the red list of COVID-19,’’ Nigeria's Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika, had fumed.

However, the UK has promised not to move a muscle in the aftermath of Nigeria's threat.

“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," a spokesperson for the British High Commission, Dean Hurlock, told Punch newspaper.

Hurlock also stated that Britain had made it clear that travel abroad would be different this year.

The UK spokesperson had also told the newspaper that: “The position stated in our press release of last weekend still stands at present.

“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 her country's decision to place countries on a 'red list' was "evidence-based."