'Racist': Britain Slaps Travel Curbs On Indians Vaccinated With UK-Developed Shots

The UK government’s new international travel restrictions have been called out as “racist” in India as they require travellers to self-isolate even if they have received the AstraZeneca vaccine made in India.

Under the new guidelines, individuals vaccinated in India will still have to undergo self-isolation or quarantine for 10 days, reported the Times of India. The blanket curbs do not take into consideration that a major share of India's population has received UK-developed AstraZeneca vaccines, produced in India under the brand name of Covishield by the Serum Institute of India. The vaccine has been approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization.

Shashi Tharoor, author and member of Indian Parliament, backed out of his book launch event in Britain and pulled out of the Cambridge Union Debate in protest. “It is offensive to ask fully vaccinated Indians to quarantine. The Brits are reviewing!” he wrote on Twitter.

Tharoor's colleague Jairam Ramesh added, “Absolutely bizarre considering Covishield was originally developed in the UK and The Serum Institute, Pune has supplied to that country too! This smacks of racism.”

Following the backlash on social media, the UK said that it is engaging with India to explore how it can expand its vaccination recognition program to include certification issued by India. It is committed to open international travel as soon as possible.

On Tuesday, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said that he met with UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss. Jaishankar urged the UK government to sort out the quarantine issue between India and the UK in “mutual interest.”

"The UK is committed to opening up international travel again as soon as is practicable and this announcement is a further step to enable people to travel more freely again, in a safe and sustainable way, while protecting public health. We are engaging with the Government of India to explore how we could expand UK recognition of vaccine certification to people vaccinated by a relevant public health body in India," a British High Commission Spokesman told NDTV.

Aviation Analyst, Alex Macheras tweeted, “Quite something for the UK to take such a stance against so many countries vaccine rollouts…especially those countries administering the *exact same* vaccines as UK…UK’s latest travel policy is as unnecessarily complicated as ever.”

Indian National Students Association UK president Amit Tiwari said the UK government is using Indian students as cash cows. The new restrictions may create more stress on the vaccinated students as they have to continue to incur the cost of self-isolation and COVID-19 tests. "These double standards are creating a lot of financial hardship and stress,” Tiwari was quoted as saying in the Times of India.

As per the new guidelines declared on Sept. 17, UK will remove its green, amber and red list to simplify its classification. The rules scheduled to come into effect at 4 a.m. (U.K. Time) on Oct. 4 will only have a red list and the rest of the world.

The red list will remain the same but for countries like India, which is currently on the amber list, rules will defer based on vaccinated and not vaccinated. Currently, Indian travelers do not need to be vaccinated to travel to the UK but mandatorily have to take a pre-departure test and a COVID-19 test on or two days before the travel date. Travelers also have to self-isolate for 10 days and get tested on or after the eighth day of entering the UK.