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After India’s decision to impose reciprocity on UK nationals arriving in the country over Covid-related travel rules on Friday, the British High Commission has responded by saying it was working with the central government to make the travelling process for Indians “as easy as possible”. It also said it was cooperating with the Centre to recognise vaccine certification by a “relevant public health body in India”.
The commission also said the UK was using a “phased approach” to resolve issues in expanding its travel policy for other countries and territories.
The spokesperson for the British High Commission said, “The UK is continuing to work on expanding the policy to countries and territories across the globe in a phased approach. We are continuing to engage with the Government of India on technical cooperation to expand UK recognition of vaccine certification to people vaccinated by a relevant public health body in India.”
The high commission said it had taken into account the volume of Indians already travelling to the UK, be it for tourism or for education among other purposes.
“The UK is open to travel and we’re already seeing a lot of people going from India to the UK, be it tourists, business people or students. Over 62,500 student visas have been issued in the year ending June 2021, which is an increase of almost 30 per cent as compared to the previous year. We want to make the process of travelling as easy as possible.”
According to the British High Commission, visa applications from Indian travellers for all categories continue to be processed and one did not need to be vaccinated to travel to the UK.
Regardless of vaccination status, a person travelling from India must take a pre-departure test, and must take a Covid-19 test on or before day 2 and on or after day 8, and self-isolate for 10 days. Travellers can also choose to shorten their home quarantine to around five days under the ‘Test to Release’ service.
Providing a background for UK’s travel-related rules in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the High Commission spokesperson said decisions on vaccine recognition were made by ministers, taking into account public health factors. “We’re looking at expanding the role that vaccination can play more widely for those who have been fully vaccinated elsewhere to enter the UK,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson also said the UK was constantly reviewing visa rules throughout the pandemic to keep borders open whilst gradually and safely restarting travel. “We will continue to review the scientific evidence on other vaccines and will keep the health measures under regular review,” the spokesperson added.
India’s new regulations for UK travellers, meanwhile, will come into effect from October 4 and will be applicable to all UK nationals arriving from the UK. Regardless of vaccine status, arrivals will have to undergo tests and mandatory quarantine. The step has been taken after making several appeals to UK authorities to ease vaccine certification norms for Indian travellers.
The latest changes in rules by the UK, announced last month, mandate that only people who have got both shots of a double-dose vaccine such as Oxford-AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna or the single shot Janssen vaccine “under an approved vaccination program in the UK, Europe, US or UK vaccine programme overseas” will be considered fully vaccinated.
India’s Covishield vaccine, developed by AstraZeneca and manufactured in India by Pune-based Serum Institute, is not recognised by Britain under new rules despite being identical to the doses given to millions of Britons.
The UK rules, which are also to become effective from October 4, have irked Indians with former union ministers Jairam Ramesh and Tharoor calling it “offensive and smacks of racism”.
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