UK sets date to accept UAE-vaccinated travelers after months blocking popular travel route

The UK will accept travelers vaccinated in the United Arab Emirates beginning Oct. 4, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said Wednesday, reopening a popular travel route after months of deterring people coming from the UAE with costly and strict hotel quarantine requirements. “We will be accepting UAE vaccination certificates from 4th Oct following updates to their vaccination app,” Shapps said. “As a major transport hub which is home to many British expats, this is great news for reopening international travel, boosting business & reuniting families.” The news comes as a relief to many in the expatriate-majority desert sheikhdom of 10m, of which at least 150,000 are British citizens who were unable to visit their families since the UK put the UAE on a red list for travel last January. The red list designation meant that travelers from the UAE — including British citizens and those who had been vaccinated in the UAE — had to quarantine for 10 days in a UK-government-designated hotel at a personal cost of nearly GBP2,000 if they wanted to enter the country. By spring, tens of thousands of people living in the UAE had signed a petition demanding the UK government change the travel designation, citing high Covid vaccination rates in the country. But the UK government resisted making changes, citing the UAE’s status as a popular travel hub as a risk, despite cases of the delta variant sweeping the UK at the time.<br/>