Active COVID-19 Travel Restrictions ‘Drying Up International Business’, Insists Malta Chamber
The Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise, And Industry have lambasted Malta’s ‘draconian quarantines’, asking authorities to remove COVID-19 travel restrictions for red-listed countries.
With the lifting of several COVID-19 restrictions announced by Health Minister Chris Fearne, many local businesses in Malta are now eyeing a return to normal or near-normal operations.
However, the Malta Chamber has insisted that more needs to be done. “Some businesses remain severely hampered by what are now excessive travel restrictions,” they wrote in a press release.
In their statement, they referred to a recommendation adopted by the Council of the EU on 22nd February that said that ‘member states should allow non-essential travel for vaccinated persons, persons who recovered from infection and all persons traveling from a country on the ‘white list’.
The recommendation also maintained that action should be taken on a case-by-case basis, and should be done purely on the vaccination status of a traveler, rather than the country of origin.
Most EU countries adopted the recommendation, but Malta has yet to do so.
“Malta continues to uphold a long dark red list of third countries, and apply draconian quarantines to arrivals from these countries even if travelers are vaccinated.”
“This makes it impossible for business-related travel to and from third countries to resume. It is placing local businesses who have contractual obligations or potential new business in third countries at a disadvantage compared to their EU counterparts.”
Expressing serious concern on the situation was Liz Barbaro Sant, Chairperson of TradeMalta:
“It sends the message that Malta is not open for business and that Maltese businesses are reluctant to service their customers in these countries, which is not the case,” she said.
“On both a commercial as well as diplomatic level, this has become unsustainable and is drying up the pipeline of international business prospects for Maltese businesses.”
Do you think international business in Malta is threatened by active COVID-19 travel restrictions?