Travel laws relaxed for Canadians forsaken in South Africa, but blame continues

Key takeaways: 

• Malawi’s president states travel ban is based on ‘sentiment rather than science.’
• Canada declared travel restraints on various countries after the detection of the omicron variant in South Africa.

Travel regulations eased for people stuck in South Africa: 

Going home for the vacations — or just going back to Canada after a tour — now appears probable once again after a short exemption to travel limitations was declared on Saturday. But the broader travel prohibition policy newly forced by the Canadian government is still being censured as illogical by leaders of nations in southern Africa.

The federal government declared Saturday night it would squeeze recently implemented limitations on travel from South Africa, enabling Canadians to turn home if they have a negative molecular test conducted in two days of departure and leave on flights transiting through Frankfurt on or before Dec. 13.

The change occurs after multiple Canadians — including passengers like the junior women’s field hockey team or Canadians attempting to go home for the vacations — talked out about the clashing constraints that they say made it completely difficult to return home.

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Charl Coetzee, a Canadian who was held in South Africa, stated he was thankful the government had moved to give an exemption for people like him but that it was the government’s limitations that had encroached on his ability to turn home.

“By Friday last week, it was feeling like our government had abandoned its citizens,” Coetzee stated in an interview on Rosemary Barton Live on Sunday. Source – cbc.ca

Coetzee said to the media chief political reporter Rosemary Barton that he had landed in South Africa only hours ere South African researchers declared they had seen the omicron variant, and he wasn’t able to get out of the nation ere travel limitations were inflicted worldwide.