Connect with us

Europe

Coronavirus: New rules for tourists as Europe thinks of ways to welcome people safely

Europe was at one point the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak, with more than 1.3 million cases and..

Europe was at one point the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak, with more than 1.3 million cases and 156,000 recorded deaths across the continent.

But in places where tourism accounts for much of the economy, officials are considering changes to how hotels, resorts and nightclubs can operate under the world’s new way of life.

Here are some of the countries making new tourism rules.







Cyprus

A deserted beach is pictured in the Cypriot resort town of Ayia Napa on May 4, 2020, as the island country gradually eases its lockdown restrictions placed for the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. - Cyprus revealed a plan to gradually ease coronavirus lockdown measures and reboot the Mediterranean holiday island's economy. The Republic of Cyprus, which controls the southern two-thirds of the divided island, had imposed strict measures soon after its first novel coronavirus cases were confirmed on
Image:4 May: A deserted beach is pictured in the Cypriot town of Ayia Napa

The Mediterranean island of Cyprus is considering asking tourists to take a COVID-19 test prior to their arrival.

Travellers could also be asked to disinfect their luggage and reception desks may be put behind screens, while cleaning staff could be dressed in full protective gear.

The island’s deputy minister for tourism, Savvas Perdios, said the island would look to bring tourists from nearby countries that have controlled the virus well, including Greece, Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

Portugal

Some tourists wearing protective masks while walking around Lisbon, Portugal
Image:11 March: Some tourists wearing protective masks while walking around Lisbon, Portugal

Southern European tourist hotspot Portugal will likely award hotels a “Clean&Safe” seal to help tourists safely choose accommodation.

The seal will indicate that the establishment, be it a hotel, restaurant or other venue, has enacted recommended hygiene and safety procedures to protect against the virus.

Other changes being adopted include hotel guests not being able to check in to their rooms until 24 hours after the last occupant has checked out, allowing time for thorough cleaning and airing of the space.

Some hotel guests may get exclusive use of their own sunbed and buffets are unlikely to be offered, though room service is expected to thrive.

And on the beach, sunbathers will be told to stay 1.5 metres apart with umbrellas at least three metres apart.

There will also be new signs and an app using a traffic light system of red, yellow and green indicating which beaches are full, partly full, or have few people. Paddle boats and water slides will be completely prohibited.

The Portuguese government said hotels intend to start opening from 1 June, but discos will be the last places to open.

Greece

A tourist visits the Parthenon temple on the archeological site of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece
Image:18 May: A tourist visits the Parthenon temple on the archeological site of the Acropolis in Athens

Direct flights to Greece from the UK are due to resume on 1 June, with some domestic flights and ferries operating.

Travel to Evia and Crete from the mainland will be permitted, while all other islands are restricted, and all arrivals must self-isolate for 14 days.

Tourists will be expected to wear masks in shops and on public transport and taxis will only take two people at a time. Large gatherings such as sporting events and festivals are unlikely to return this summer.

Travel updates for other popular European tourist hotspots…

Spain

Spain is hoping to welcome back foreign visitors by late June. File pic
Image:Spain is hoping to welcome back foreign visitors by late June. File pic

Hard-hit Spain will likely have to wait until late June to welcome holidaymakers back, despite having a tourism-dependent economy.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is preparing to ask parliament to extend a state of emergency until 27 June, with the strict lockdown measures so far helping to limit infections and COVID-19 related deaths, which stand at 27,709.

Spain has made some changes, lifting a ban on direct flights and ships from Italy which have been imposed since 11 March.

However tourism restrictions and a 14-day quarantine for inbound travellers remain in place.

Italy

Restaurants are among the businesses in Italy reopening again on Monday
Image:18 May: Restaurants are among the businesses in Italy reopening again

Once the active centre of the European coronavirus outbreak, Italians are slowly regaining their freedom and have enjoyed being able to sit down at a café or restaurant, shop in all retail stores, and attend church this week.

However, travel restrictions remain firmly in place and they will not be able to travel outside their regions except for work or other strict necessities until next month as lockdown rules are slowly eased.

International travel to Italy will be possible from 3 June, with EU visitors allowed in with no requirement to self-isolate. People can also start moving freely across the country’s regions on the same day.

France

Clients are queueing in front of the Cedric Grolet bakery shop on Avenue de l'Opera
Image:11 May: Queue in front of the Cedric Grolet bakery shop on Avenue de l’Opera in Paris, France

Emergency measures in France are currently set to be in place until at least 24 July, with the government banning non-essential trips and requiring overseas visitors to self-isolate.

Talks are ongoing to negotiate how the border crossing between the UK and France would work to ensure the spread of COVID-19 is contained.

Borders with Switzerland and Germany are due to reopen from 15 June, but no date has been announced for borders reopening to non-essential travel by UK nationals.

Read from source

Share this:

Related Topics:
Up Next

Turkey sentences US Consulate translator to eight years in prison
Don't Miss

EU’s external borders should reopen from July 1, says European Commission
Continue Reading

Europe

Aliku Ogorchukwu: Wife of Nigerian killed in Italy demands justice

The wife of a Nigerian street trader who was killed in Italy has told the BBC she is seeking justice following his “painful death”.

Aliku Ogorchukwu, 39, was reportedly selling handkerchiefs in the seaside town of Civitanova Marche on Friday when he was chased and beaten to death.

A 32-year-old Italian has been arrested on suspicion of murder and robbery.

A video circulating online shows a man on top of Ogorchukwu, punching him with his bare hands.

None of those who witnessed the broad daylight attack appeared to intervene.

“This is a form of wickedness I don’t know,” Ogorchukwu’s wife, Charity Oriachi, told the BBC’s Focus on Africa.

Ms Oriachi said she had received help in coming to terms with her husband’s death but was tired of “talk”. Now, she was only interested in justice, she insisted.

Her family had lived in Italy for a long time, she said, stressing that her husband had never sought any trouble.

The killing has sparked outrage in the local community, including Nigerians, who took to the streets over the weekend and are planning another demonstration soon.

The Nigerian government has asked Italian authorities to quickly “bring the perpetrator of the heinous act” to justice.

Suspect not released

The suspect – a white man named as Filippo Claudio Giuseppe Ferlazzo – has been ordered to remain in jail as the investigation continues.

His defence lawyer told the media the suspect had said he was sorry and that there was “no racial element” involved.

A police investigator said Ogorchukwu was attacked after the trader’s “insistent” requests to the suspect and his partner for spare change.

The partner, identified as Elena D, told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that Ogorchukwu had touched her arm, but that did not bother her.

Ms Oriachi now wants to see the suspect “face to face”, to understand why he killed her husband, the family’s lawyer told the Associated Press.

Read from: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62384560

Continue Reading

Europe

Ukrainian widow confronts Russian soldier accused of killing her husband

In the very first days of this invasion a 62-year-old unarmed civilian was shot dead on a village street outside his Ukrainian home. His name was Oleksandr Shelipov.

Three months later and the captured Russian soldier accused of killing him is in Kyiv being tried for a war crime.

Standing up in court to confront the 21-year-old defendant on Thursday was Kateryna Shelipova, the widow of the man killed.

Did he repent his crime, she asked?

The Russian tank commander, Vadim Shishimarin, replied that he admitted his guilt and asked for her forgiveness. “But I understand you won’t be able to forgive me,” he added.

Kateryna Shelipova hadn’t finished. “Tell me please, why did you [Russians] come here? To protect us?” she asked, citing Vladimir Putin’s justification for the invasion of Ukraine.

“Protect us from whom? Did you protect me from my husband, whom you killed?”

The soldier had no answer to that.

This landmark trial marks the first time a Russian serviceman has been put on the stand for war crimes since the invasion of Ukraine was launched in February.

And perhaps such raw encounters are what such trials are about, at least in part. Forcing a soldier – who ignored all the rules of war – to face up to exactly what he has done and the suffering he has caused.

Sgt Shishimarin has pleaded guilty and Ukrainian prosecutors are asking for him to be sentenced to life imprisonment.

On Wednesday, Ms Shelipova told me she actually felt sorry for the soldier, but she could not forgive him for this crime.

She heard the shots that killed her husband, then saw Sgt Shishimarin through her gate – holding his weapon.

Five minutes later she says she saw her husband’s body: “He was dead with a shot in his head. I started screaming very loudly.”

“The loss of my husband is everything for me,” Ms Shelipova said, adding: “He was my protector.”

‘It killed him’

Recalling the events of 28 February, Vadim Shishimarin said he and a small group of other Russian soldiers had become separated from their unit and hijacked a car in order to return to it.

“As we were driving, we saw a man. He was talking on the phone,” the defendant said.

He claimed that he hadn’t wanted to fire the fatal shots, that he was following orders – threatened by another soldier if he refused to do as he was told.

“He said I would be putting us in danger if I didn’t. I shot him at short range. It killed him,” the 21-year-old tank commander told the court.

Interestingly, his defence lawyer – appointed by the state – told me that no Russian official has been in touch with him, including from its defence ministry.

There is no Russian embassy in Kyiv these days, so no contact from there either.

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman yesterday told the BBC that the Kremlin has “no information” about this case.

All in all, it feels rather like the young soldier has been abandoned to his fate by the commanders who sent him to war and continue to deny that their forces commit crimes here.

We also heard from a second Russian soldier who witnessed the killing in February and later surrendered to Ukrainian forces.

Ivan Maltysev, another slight and young-looking 21-year-old, told the court how the Russian soldiers spotted Oleksandr Shelipov while they were driving the stolen car.

Mr Maltysev claimed that Vadim Shishimarin was then ordered to shoot the victim because he was on the phone.

“Vadim didn’t do it. So the soldier, whose name I don’t know, turned round in the car and shouted that Vadim had to carry out the order, or we would be informed on.

“At this point, we were almost alongside the civilian and, under pressure, Vadim fired. He fired three or four rounds.”

Ukraine has so far identified more than 11,000 possible war crimes committed by Russia.

Moscow has denied its troops have targeted civilians, but investigators have been collecting evidence of possible war crimes to bring before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

This trial is Ukraine’s chance to prove, beyond doubt, that a Russian soldier killed a civilian with no regard for the rules of war.

Its prosecutors know they are in the spotlight, proceeding so quickly, and in the middle of a war.

That is why they are keen to be as transparent and thorough as possible – so that this is not seen as a show trial, but part of a vital quest for justice.

Read from: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-6151164

 

Continue Reading

Europe

Stop matching lone female Ukraine refugees with single men, UK told

The UN refugee agency has called on the UK government to intervene to stop single British men from being matched up with lone Ukrainian women seeking refuge from war because of fears of sexual exploitation.

Following claims that predatory men are using the Homes for Ukraine scheme to target the vulnerable, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) told the Guardian “a more appropriate matching process” could be put in place to ensure women and women with children are matched with families or couples.

The suggestion from the global refugee agency follows reports that Ukrainian refugees, predominantly women and sometimes accompanied by children, are at risk in the UK of sexual exploitation.

Under the government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme, British hosts must link up with Ukrainian refugees themselves, leaving tens of thousands of people to resort to unregulated social media groups to connect.

A government-backed matching service run by the charity Reset offers to match UK hosts with refugees but has been operating for just over a week. Those who want to move to the UK must have a sponsor before applying for a visa.

In a statement, the UNHCR said there was a need for adequate safeguards and vetting measures to be in place against exploitation, as well as adequate support for sponsors. “[The] UNHCR believes that a more appropriate matching process could be put in place by ensuring that women and women with children are matched with families or couples, rather than with single men.

“Matching done without the appropriate oversight may lead to increasing the risks women may face, in addition to the trauma of displacement, family separation and violence already experienced,” a spokesperson said.

Leading refugee charities raised their concerns about the Homes for Ukraine scheme in a letter to Michael Gove, the minister in charge of the scheme. Louise Calvey, the head of safeguarding at the charity Refugee Action, told the Observer it was at risk of being a “Tinder for sex traffickers”.

One 32-year-old woman from Bakhmut, Ukraine, who has been searching for an appropriate person to match in the UK, wrote that she had received suggestive messages from men on Facebook’s Messenger app. “I was approached by one older guy from London who said that I would have to share a bedroom with him, and was asked if I was OK with that,” she said in an email seen by the Guardian.

The Sunday Times reported this week that a journalist posing as a 22-year-old Ukrainian woman from Kyiv found that within minutes of posting a message on the largest Facebook group for UK hosts she was inundated with inappropriate messages.

Some men lied about having several bedrooms in their one-bed homes while another proposed sharing a bed, writing: “I have a large bed. We could sleep together.” Another sent a voice note that said: “I am ready to help you and maybe you can help me also.”

In its statement, the UNHCR also raised concerns about the repercussions should the original UK host prove a potential threat to the safety of the refugee, and the six-month minimum duration on the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

“UNHCR believes that appropriate training and information are needed to ensure that hosts make an informed decision when applying to become sponsors. Housing a stranger in an extra bedroom for an extended period is not, for some people, sustainable,” the spokesperson said.

There is growing public anger over the length of time that Ukrainians are being forced to wait before being given visas from the Home Office amid the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since the second world war.

Priti Patel, the home secretary, apologised on Friday for the time it had taken for Ukrainian refugees to arrive in the UK under two visa schemes, after figures showed only 12,000 had so far reached Britain.

Reports on Tuesday claimed Gove had been accused of bullying Home Office officials by Patel’s permanent secretary, Matthew Rycroft.

Asked to respond to the UNHCR’s request for an intervention on sexual exploitation of Ukrainian women, a government spokesperson said: “Attempts to exploit vulnerable people are truly despicable – this is why we have designed our Homes for Ukraine scheme to have specific safeguards in place, including robust security and background checks on all sponsors, both by the Home Office and local authorities.

“Councils must make at least one in-person visit to a sponsors property and following guests arrival, they have a duty to ensure the guest is safe and well.

“We have also partnered with the charity Reset Communities and Refugees to fund and provide a matching service for sponsors and refugees to ensure that matches made are suitable, safe and successful. This service will vet eligibility, assess needs, and provide training for sponsors to ensure they

ensure they can support the people they host.”

Asked to confirm or deny whether there had been a complaint that Gove had bullied staff, the spokesperson added: “Humanitarian schemes set up in record time by the Home Office and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities working closely together are helping thousands of Ukrainians find safety in the UK.”

 

Read from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/13/stop-matching-lone-female-ukraine-refugees-with-single-men-uk-told

Continue Reading

Trending