South Africa on UK's red list for travel
South Africa is on the UK’s new “red list” of travel ban countries. This means that people in, or who have travelled through, South Africa are banned from entering the UK unless they are a UK national or have residency rights in the UK.
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South Africa has been placed on the UK’s new “red list” which has been introduced to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the country. People in countries on the red list are banned from travelling to the UK.
However, if you are an Irish or UK national, or you have residency rights in the United Kingdom, then you may still travel from South Africa to the UK. As of the 15th February, travelers from countries on the red list must now quarantine in a hotel for 10 days upon their arrival in the UK.
It will cost £1,750 to stay in one of the government designated hotels to quarantine. This cost covers the hotel stay, transport and testing. The additional rate for one extra adult or a child aged over 12 is £650, and for a child aged five to 12 it is £325.
Those who fail to quarantine in a hotel could face a find of up to £10,000 and those who lie on their passenger locator form about having been in a country on the red list could face a 10 year prison sentence.
The UK Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, announced the new measures, saying:
“Passenger carriers will have a duty in law to make sure that passengers have signed up for these new arrangements before they travel, and will be fined if they don’t, and we will be putting in place tough fines for people who don’t comply. This includes a £1,000 penalty for any international arrival who fails to take a mandatory test, a £2,000 penalty for any international arrival who fails to take the second mandatory test, as well as automatically extending their quarantine period to 14 days, and a £5,000 fixed penalty notice – rising to £10,000 – for arrivals who fail to quarantine in a designated hotel.”
People travelling from red list countries will not be eligible to use the test to release scheme, and will have to spend a full 10 days in quarantine.
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People travelling to the UK from South Africa will have to enter quarantine upon their arrival [Image credit: Unsplash]
