Pakistanis are among the nations not allowed to enter EU

American and Russian nationals also not permitted to enter

European Union has left out Pakistan from the list of 54 countries allowed to enter into EU after the reopening of borders in July. Pakistanis will not be able to enter European Union this summer.  Pakistan has been excluded from the draft list 54 countries including America and Russia. Pakistan has less corona cases  and deaths compared to India but not included in the list of 54 countries.   Surprisingly, India was named on the list despite being the fourth most coronavirus infected country in the world with cases over 545,000 and more than 16,000 deaths.India has so far failed to control the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. The inclusion of India has raised questions on the criteria used to determine the countries where coronavirus spread is under control.

Pakistani government should discuss this development with EU and try to fulfill the criteria of EU to allow its citizen to enter its borders. This decision of the EU is a setback for Pakistan who is reeling under COVID-19 pandemic which has crippled its economy.    

The United States, which has the most Covid-19 cases in the world and is experiencing a surge in new infections, also failed to make it to the list as the EU countries believe that the US failed to control the coronavirus pandemic.

The EU officials prepared the list after long debates in Brussels; that who will be allowed to enter the EU on July 1 when the bloc's international borders are scheduled to be opened - and who will be forbidden. There are two lists, one for those that will be accepted, and one for those who will not.

Euro News has reported citing Diplomatic sources that there is disagreement between nations on the criteria to use for this decision, with some maintaining that data about COVID rates is not reliable. They are asking the ECDC, the EU agency for disease prevention, to come up with more details, the sources said, adding that the lists will be reviewed every two weeks.

When EU guidelines were released two weeks ago officials said the list would take into account the infection rate in countries concerned. The criteria are based on epidemiological data and at the time we were told that 47 countries were on the list of acceptable countries and 54 nations on the barred list. From our source in Brussels on Thursday there are now 54 on the acceptable draft list, and it is clear that these numbers may continue to fluctuate.

The countries that made it to the list included: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Australia, Bahamas, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Dominica, Egypt, Ethiopia, Georgia, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Mauritius, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Palau, Paraguay, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Serbia, South Korea, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vatican City, Venezuela, Vietnam and Zambia.

An EU diplomat said the bloc’s executive commission had proposed three criteria for allowing in passengers from third countries, including the epidemiological situation of that country, but EU member countries would have to determine what the relevant measurements and thresholds should be.

The second diplomat said member states were considering using a country’s rate of infection per 100,000 people to decide whether to allow in passengers, but had not yet agreed at what threshold to set this criteria. The threshold would also need to account for factors influencing the reliability of this data, such as a country’s Covid-19 testing capacity.

Earlier this month, the European Commission recommended that the bloc gradually reopen its borders to non-EU travellers from July and use three criteria to decide which countries to allow visitors from: countries should have Covid-19 under at least as much control as the EU average, have containment measures during travel, and be willing to let in EU visitors.

                                                                           News Desk