Malta’s continued insistence on barring travel from a ‘dark red’ list of countries for COVID-19 purposes is hurting local business prospects, the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry has said.
The business lobby group welcomed news announced on Friday that most remaining COVID-19 restrictions will be lifted on May 2, but said “excessive” travel restrictions remained in place.
Malta continues to enforce a ‘traffic lights’ categorisation of countries for COVID-19-related travel purposes. Anyone travelling from a country registered as ‘dark red’ must obtain prior authorisation before flying to Malta and must quarantine for seven days if vaccinated, rising to 14 days for anyone without a recognised vaccination certificate.
Well over 100 countries and regions are currently marked as ‘dark red’, with the list encompassing practically all of the African continent, many Latin American states, Pacific and Caribbean islands, some Asian countries and Ukraine. .
These restrictions are stricter than what the EU has recommended for its member states: in February, the EU Council advised countries to open up their borders to non-essential travel from such countries, provided travellers are vaccinated or have recovered from COVID and undergo a PCR test.
According to the Malta Chamber, the stricter regime borders on the “draconian” and is unduly hurting local business opportunities.
“This makes it impossible for business-related travel to and from third countries to resume and is placing local businesses who have contractual obligations or potential new business in third countries at a disadvantage compared to their EU counterparts,” the Chamber said.
TradeMalta chairperson Liz Barbaro Sant said the country was sending out a message that “Malta is not open for business”.
“On both a commercial as well as a diplomatic level, this has become unsustainable and is drying up the pipeline of international business prospects for Maltese businesses,” she said.
TradeMalta is a private-public partnership between the Chamber and the government.
Malta Chamber President Marisa Xuereb stated that “There are significant business interests in third countries that are being put at risk by quarantines that are incongruent with the approach being adopted locally.
“You are no longer required to quarantine if you have a positive case within your household, but you need to quarantine if you return from most third countries even if you are vaccinated.
“An urgent review of these rules is required to allow businesses to resume their international activities without further delay. The smallest country in the EU cannot be the slowest to take-off.”