Travel: Border force warn against ‘fake passes’

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The Government is set to give the go-ahead for non-essential foreign travel to begin again from May 17, paving the way for the resumption of holidays abroad. Ministers are finalising a traffic-light system that will include a “red list” of banned countries, an “amber list” and a “green list”. Only countries with high vaccination rates and a low number of Covid cases will make it on to the quarantine-free “green list”.

Currently, the only countries likely to be included in this category are Gibraltar, Malta, Iceland and possibly Portugal.

All other popular European destinations such as Spain, Greece and France are expected to be included on the “amber list”, meaning holidaymakers will have to quarantine for at least five days on their return.

It is understood that no European destination will be placed on the “red list”.

However, the Foreign Office publishes its own travel guidance that uses different criteria in its risk assessment.

Chief among these are factors such as the risk of people getting trapped by coronavirus restrictions, as well as the capacity and quality of a country’s health service.

If the two risk assessments do not align, then travel to countries on both the “green” and “amber” lists could be in jeopardy, according to The Times.

This is because most travel companies will not send their clients to countries that the Foreign Office actively advises against.

Without Foreign Office approval, most travel insurances would also be invalidated.

Travel industry executives called on Boris Johnson to ensure that the Government and the Foreign Office would sing from the same hymn sheet when it came to publishing travel advice.

Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, told The Times: “Green and amber countries should not be caught up in additional travel advisories as it will cause complexity for customers and impact how many people will be able to travel overseas this summer.

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“We need to see alignment between the Foreign Office advice and the traffic light system to provide clarity and transparency to consumers and operators.”

A Foreign Office source said: “Travel advice is an independent assessment of the risk [to] Brits travelling aboard.

“It’s independent, trusted advice and will remain so.”

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