Saudi Arabia to impose 3-year travel ban on citizens visiting 'red list' countries

Saudi Arabia is threatening to impose a three-year travel ban on citizens travelling to the countries listed on the kingdom’s red list in order to curb the spread of the coronavirus and its new variants.

Saudi Arabia Travel Ban, Saudi Arabia Red List, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia to impose 3-year travel ban on citizens visiting ‘red list’ countries.

The announcement was made by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), which cited an unnamed interior ministry official as saying that some citizens had violated travel regulation after they were allowed to travel abroad in May without prior permission from authorities for the first time since March 2020.

“Anyone who is proven to be involved will be subject to legal accountability and heavy penalties upon their return, and will be banned from travel for three years,” the official said.

Saudi Arabia has placed a travel ban on several countries where coronavirus cases are surging, including fghanistan, Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Pakistan, South Africa, Turkey, Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates.

“The Ministry of Interior stresses that citizens are still banned from travelling directly or via another country to these states or any other that has yet to control the pandemic or where the new strains have spread,” the official said.

The Kingdom has recorded 1,379 new COVID-19 infections on Tuesday, which brought the total to 520,774 cases and 8,189 deaths. It bears mentioning that the Saudi Arabia saw a daily infections fall from peak of above 4,000 in June 2020 to below 100 in early January before they started to rise because of new variants of the COVID-19 virus.

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