Can I travel to green-listed Australia with a transit stop in Singapore on the amber list?

Q Can you clarify if I am allowed to travel to Australia (on the green list) with a transit stop (change of planes) in Singapore (on the amber list)?

Libby S

A The status of a country according to the UK’s “traffic light” classification system of red, amber and green categories is irrelevant to the point of view of establishing whether you can travel to a particular destination. There is nothing reciprocal about the system – it does not signify a bilateral “air corridor” agreement. The colours are only concerned with stipulating the arrivals regime when you return to Britain: for “red list” countries you must go into 11 nights of hotel quarantine; for “amber list,” self-isolate at home for 10 days; and for “green list” take a test before departure and upon arrival.

Despite what you may have heard, Singapore is rated green alongside Australia.

Sadly, just because a country is on the green list does not mean that you will be welcome to visit. Indeed the majority of destinations on the list either don’t want us or are inaccessible, or both.

Currently Australia admits fewer than 8,000 arrivals per week, and almost all of them are returning citizens. The reason for the cap in numbers is that everyone is required to go into “managed quarantine” on arrival, and there is a limit on the number of spaces.

Singapore does not allow “normal” visits for tourism or seeing family and friends from the UK. It also has strict rules on transit flights, which is a sad state of affairs since Changi airport was long one of the world’s most appealing transport hubs.

If by some chance you were able to get permission to visit Australia, then you might be able to get a transit flight via Singapore – but you would need positive confirmation from the airline that it was allowed for your specific journey.

All in all, I am afraid, I am assuming I will not be back in Australia until at least the second half of 2022 – though Singapore may open up before that.

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Q How much notice will those in amber destinations get to return home if that country is put on the red list while there?

Dren

A With Spain opening up its frontiers to British travellers from today, with no requirement to undergo tests or produce evidence of vaccination, the interest in travelling to countries on the “amber list” looks set to increase. There is no legal impediment to going to any of the 150 or so nations in this category; you simply need to self-isolate on return to the UK, and take a series of Covid tests before and after the journey home.

Conditions for arrivals from the “red list” countries are much tougher. You must pay £1,750 (or £2,400 for two) to stay in a quarantine hotel for 11 nights, with no option to “test to release” halfway through.

The prospect of shifting from amber to red is even more daunting than a “green list” nation moving to amber. And in that latter case, the government has promised to try to give warning by putting the destination on a “green watchlist” with a week or two’s notice of a possible change. But there is no such intention for countries moving from amber to red.

In practice, though, I think some slack will be given to allow people to return. Typically five or six days’ warning has been given for a country joining the red list. In the case of Pakistan, this was enough time for special charter flights to be organised from Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi to various UK airports.

We have seen that unusual circumstances can trigger an instant “red listing” – as in the case of Denmark last autumn when there were sudden fears of a Covid variant being picked up from infected mink. But that was a one-off. I believe the general “direction of travel” for traffic light categories over the next few months will be overwhelmingly from red to amber and from amber to green.

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Q We are booked for an Antigua holiday in mid June. If it is not on the green list by then we are considering going anyway. At this point in time the Foreign Office looks to allow travel. My big fear is when at Gatwick at passport control they ask: “Are you going for a holiday?”

“Ethan45”

A I understand your concern, Ethan, but please do not be misled by the unhelpful and contradictory comments of ministers about the wisdom and even legality of international travel.

Last Monday, the government lifted the 19-week ban on overseas holidays and visits to family and friends.

As a result, we are back to the legal position at the start of the year. You and I can happily go to any country that we wish to visit, providing it is prepared to accept us. But listening to the pronouncements of some government ministers, there are strong suggestions that it is somehow wrong to go to destinations on the amber list of medium risk nations. All this talk of essential travel only seems to be an attempt to go back to the rules as they stood a week ago. Which strikes me as ridiculous: if they had really wanted to stop you and I from travelling to amber (and red) list countries, they could have simply kept the law banning international leisure travel in place and relaxed it a tiny bit for the green list nations.

There is no outbound passport control at Gatwick. But even if there were, it would not be up to the officer to decide whether you should or should not be able to travel. It is the case that police and officials at Gatwick and other airports have challenged travellers about their intentions and motives for going abroad, but that ceased on 17 May.

Of course your concerns, and need to self-isolate on return to the UK, would be eased were Antigua to be added to the green list. The next review is likely to be in the first week of June, coming into effect a week later, and all the indications are that the nation will be moved from amber to green. But with the decisions made so far somewhat inexplicable, I am afraid it is impossible to be sure.

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