PETITION DRAWN UP TO DROP TRAVEL BAN BETWEEN SA AND THE UK

A London-based public relations firm has started a petition to drop the travel ban imposed on those wanting to travel between South Africa and the United Kingdom.

Due to a variant of COVID-19 known as the Beta variant first identified here, South Africa was at one stage the country with the most travel restrictions imposed against it.

For eight months now, South Africans have been unable to travel to the United Kingdom and vice versa. The PR firm now hopes to put an end to this.

So far, the petition has gathered over 9,000 signatures in less than a week. According to Business Insider, at 100,00 signatures the issue of travel between South Africa and the United Kingdom will be considered for debate in parliament.

Business Insider further reports that the United Kingdom introduced a traffic light system in May, which categorises countries, according to a COVID-19 risk analysis, into green, amber and red lists. These lists are updated every month.

Due to South Africa being on the red list since March 2019, the local tourism industry has taken a hard knock.

Image credit: Quartz