A British couple has opened up about how they discovered at the airport that they were banned from travelling to Malta to visit their son last week because of the type of vaccine they had been given.

Several British media houses, including the BBC and the Daily Mail, reported that Glenda and Steve Hardy had taken a particular Indian-made batch of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine which Malta rejected last week.

However, the Maltese government has since backtracked on its decision to ban this batch, with British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announcing the U-turn today.

BBC reported Glenda Hardy as saying this was their fourth attempt to visit their son in Malta after having to cancel previous trips due to lockdown. 

She said they had contacted their travel agency after hearing of potential concerns with the vaccine they had been administered and were told it was “perfectly OK to fly”. 

However, when they checked in at Manchester Airport last Friday they were told they weren’t allowed to board because of the vaccine they had received.

“What’s going to be done for this minority group that have had this so-called inferior vaccine?” she asked.

“There’s all this talk of Europe being opened up for travel for everybody, but it’s not been opened up for us.”

“Malta is the one place we want to go to visit family, not for a holiday, this is missing loved ones and through no fault of our own we’ve had a batch of the AstraZeneca that won’t allow us to do this.”

Have you experienced similar difficulties when travelling during the pandemic?