Spain could be the next country hit with tougher travel curbs by Britain because of concerns over the Beta variant, it is feared.
The Covid-19 variant first identified in South Africa was cited by ministers as the reason for scrapping quarantine-free travel to France from Monday.
France was put in a new category, nicknamed “amber plus”, which means vaccinated travellers can no longer evade isolation on their return to Britain.
In Spain, the Beta variant accounts for about one in every 11 virus samples sequenced by genomic experts, a similar prevalence to that in France.
Spain is a major holiday market for British tourists and flight bookings rose fourfold after the exemption for vaccinated travellers was announced.
Travellers from further afield have used Spain as a stopping point, so they can enter Britain without having been in a red list country in the previous 10 days.
Paul Charles, head of travel consultancy The PC Agency, raised concerns that Spain and Greece could both join France on the “amber plus” list.
“The concern is the Government will be looking at Spain and Greece and potentially add those to the amber plus category,” he said.
Government minister Paul Scully, an under secretary of state for business, did not deny reports Spain could be added to the list.
He told Sky News on Tuesday that “we’ll try and give people as much notice as we can” when any changes are made.
Ministers will “work out what is best to make sure that we keep transmission of the virus low, we keep transmission of the variants low,” he said.
“There’s a lot of factors that are involved in the decisions that are taken around travel.”
Britain last week toughened the rules on Spain’s Balearic Islands, which include popular destinations Mallorca and Ibiza.
The islands were moved from the green to the amber list amid concerns about a surge in cases among unvaccinated younger people.
Ministers do not disclose their exact methods for determining travel rules and the move to restrict travel to France led to criticism from Paris on Monday.
Clement Beaune, a French minister for European affairs, described the new restrictions as excessive and questioned Britain’s reasoning.
Critics said France’s data was skewed by a cluster of Beta cases in the overseas territory of La Reunion.
Britain’s traffic light system is aimed at reviving the hard-hit travel sector after a year of curbs on foreign holidays.
The UK launched the system in May, but until now most of Europe’s popular destinations have effectively been out of bounds because of the quarantine requirement.
Passenger numbers at London’s Heathrow Airport are still about 90 per cent down on pre-pandemic levels, latest figures show.
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Sharlene Teo, Pan Macmillan
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
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WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
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Know your camel milk:
Flavour: Similar to goat’s milk, although less pungent. Vaguely sweet with a subtle, salty aftertaste.
Texture: Smooth and creamy, with a slightly thinner consistency than cow’s milk.
Use it: In your morning coffee, to add flavour to homemade ice cream and milk-heavy desserts, smoothies, spiced camel-milk hot chocolate.
Goes well with: chocolate and caramel, saffron, cardamom and cloves. Also works well with honey and dates.
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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The major Hashd factions linked to Iran:
Badr Organisation: Seen as the most militarily capable faction in the Hashd. Iraqi Shiite exiles opposed to Saddam Hussein set up the group in Tehran in the early 1980s as the Badr Corps under the supervision of the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The militia exalts Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but intermittently cooperated with the US military.
Saraya Al Salam (Peace Brigade): Comprised of former members of the officially defunct Mahdi Army, a militia that was commanded by Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and fought US and Iraqi government and other forces between 2004 and 2008. As part of a political overhaul aimed as casting Mr Al Sadr as a more nationalist and less sectarian figure, the cleric formed Saraya Al Salam in 2014. The group’s relations with Iran has been volatile.
Kataeb Hezbollah: The group, which is fighting on behalf of the Bashar Al Assad government in Syria, traces its origins to attacks on US forces in Iraq in 2004 and adopts a tough stance against Washington, calling the United States “the enemy of humanity”.
Asaeb Ahl Al Haq: An offshoot of the Mahdi Army active in Syria. Asaeb Ahl Al Haq’s leader Qais al Khazali was a student of Mr Al Moqtada’s late father Mohammed Sadeq Al Sadr, a prominent Shiite cleric who was killed during Saddam Hussein’s rule.
Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba: Formed in 2013 to fight alongside Mr Al Assad’s loyalists in Syria before joining the Hashd. The group is seen as among the most ideological and sectarian-driven Hashd militias in Syria and is the major recruiter of foreign fighters to Syria.
Saraya Al Khorasani: The ICRG formed Saraya Al Khorasani in the mid-1990s and the group is seen as the most ideologically attached to Iran among Tehran’s satellites in Iraq.
(Source: The Wilson Centre, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation)
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A list of the animal rescue organisations in the UAE
Company Profile
Company name: Big Farm Brothers
Started: September 2020
Founders: Vishal Mahajan and Navneet Kaur
Based: Dubai Investment Park 1
Industry: food and agriculture
Initial investment: $205,000
Current staff: eight to 10
Future plan: to expand to other GCC markets
