Algeria fumes over exclusion from EU’s covid-19 safe-country travel shortlist

Algeria has lambasted its exclusion by the European Union from the shortlist of countries whose citizens and residents can travel to Schengen area amid ongoing covid-19 pandemic.

Brussels has excluded people from Algeria from traveling into the EU amid a rise in coronavirus cases in the North African country, which posted 31,465 contaminations since February when the first case was reported.

Algeria was the latest country the EU scrapped from the safe countries’ list, from which the US, Serbia and Montenegro were chalked off earlier in July.

The Algerian foreign ministry in a statement said it was “surprised” by the EU decision, arguing that the decision is without effect on Algerian nationals as authorities have maintained the borders of the country closed until further notice as part of efforts to protect them from foreign contaminations.

The first case in Algeria was an imported case.

The ministry also rapped the 27-member bloc over the decision noting that Algeria has deployed significant efforts compared with other countries with more serious situations and contaminations way beyond those reported in Algeria.

The EU carries out a regular two-week review of the list which initially included 15 countries. The latest review has maintained Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, South Korea, Tunisia, and Uruguay.