Turkey stays on UK's travel ban list amid COVID-19 pandemic

Turkey continues to remain on the UK’s "red" list of countries after a travel review by the government, meaning travelers need to quarantine in a designated hotel for ten days when they return to the UK.

Thursday July 15 2021 08:40 pm

Duvar English

Turkey will remain on Britain's “red list” for international travel, meaning travelers will be subject to a mandatory hotel quarantine upon their arrivals into the UK, after a July 14 review by the UK government.

The UK government classifies holiday destinations as green, amber or red depending on the COVID-19 risks associated with traveling to and from them.

For any countries on the “red list”, travel into the UK is forbidden for everyone except British and Irish citizens and official UK residents.

The UK government mandates that travelers coming back from red list countries quarantine for 10 days and 11 nights in designated hotels to stop new COVID-19 infections and variants of concern entering the UK.

Travelers also need to pay for the hotel themselves at a cost of £1,750 per person for those journeying alone.

The UK government is reviewing the traffic light system every three weeks, and instructs people not to travel to “red” countries unless for extremely essential reasons.

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on July 14 that there is an increasing trend in the number of COVID-19 cases in Turkey despite the "government's success" in administering vaccines.

"If we do not comply with the measures and do not get our vaccines, we may encounter difficult days," he said.

"The condition for a strong return to normal is to comply with the measures until the herd immunity is achieved through vaccination."