Officials in London have indicated that the Gulf Co-operation Council bloc of countries, which includes the UAE, is set to gain access to the UK's Electronic Travel Authorisation system when it is launched next year.
The new UK fully digital border system is designed for passengers visiting the UK or transiting through the country who do not currently need a visa for short stays and those who do not already have an immigration status before travelling. UAE travellers must currently apply for a standard visitor visa or obtain an electronic waiver.
Officials told The National that the UK will ensure UAE and GCC nationals can “access the system from early 2023, facilitating easier travel for business visitors and tourists”.
It has long been the goal of the UAE to match the visa-free access that citizens have been granted to the European Schengen zone — 26 countries that have officially abolished all passport and other controls at their mutual borders — with the same access to the UK.
Ending the cost and inconvenience of obtaining a UK visa before starting the trip would be a boon for bilateral travel and trade.
Emirati citizens can now gain visa-free entry to 172 countries and the passport has a high ranking in global mobility rankings.
The UAE and EU signed a Schengen Area visa waiver agreement in 2015 which allowed UAE citizens to travel through the Schengen countries without applying for visas, as well as eight non-Schengen states.
Launching the new digital border project, British officials said they expected the system to handle 30 million entry and exits every year, providing the country for the first time a comprehensive tracker of who leaves, as well as who comes into, the UK.
Hopes are high that bilateral travel ties can again reach the 400-plus flights a week between the UAE and UK.
There are an estimated 3,000 Emirati students attending UK education institutions. Many UAE citizens also visit the UK for business and leisure trips and for medical treatment.
The issue of dropping visa requirements has been raised regularly in the UAE-UK inter-government task force as well as the UAE-UK Business Council. Last year the UAE and UK sealed a Sovereign Investment Partnership worth $10bn and a wider Partnership for the Future, which commits billions of pounds to Britain’s technology, infrastructure and energy transition.
Saudi Arabia and Bahrain joined other GCC countries in accessing the electronic visa waiver status for UK travel earlier this month. The announcement was seen as paving the way for the move on to the ETA in 2023, people close to the travel industry said.
The UK government is changing the law to ensure that a traveller’s authorisation to travel is checked by the carrier and confirmed before travel to the UK. It is not known if there will be an ETA when the system comes online.
World's most powerful passports according to the Henley Passport Index - in pictures
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Sinopharm vaccine explained
The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.
“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.
"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."
This is then injected into the body.
"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.
"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."
The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.
Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.
“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.
How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
- Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
- Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
- Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
- Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
- Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
- The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
- Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
Company profile
Company name: Dharma
Date started: 2018
Founders: Charaf El Mansouri, Nisma Benani, Leah Howe
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: TravelTech
Funding stage: Pre-series A
Investors: Convivialite Ventures, BY Partners, Shorooq Partners, L& Ventures, Flat6Labs
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
High profile Al Shabab attacks
- 2010: A restaurant attack in Kampala Uganda kills 74 people watching a Fifa World Cup final football match.
- 2013: The Westgate shopping mall attack, 62 civilians, five Kenyan soldiers and four gunmen are killed.
- 2014: A series of bombings and shootings across Kenya sees scores of civilians killed.
- 2015: Four gunmen attack Garissa University College in northeastern Kenya and take over 700 students hostage, killing those who identified as Christian; 148 die and 79 more are injured.
- 2016: An attack on a Kenyan military base in El Adde Somalia kills 180 soldiers.
- 2017: A suicide truck bombing outside the Safari Hotel in Mogadishu kills 587 people and destroys several city blocks, making it the deadliest attack by the group and the worst in Somalia’s history.
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The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
