Mauritian citizens are currently not allowed to travel to the European Union (EU) member states. That’s according to a list of ‘safe countries’ published by the EU’s Council of Ministers since the end of June recommending which states outside the EU’s 27 member states should be allowed entry into their country in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The EU’s latest list published on 22 October, however, does not include Mauritius even though Port-Louis currently bills itself as “Covid-free”. “Mauritius is not on the EU list of third countries for which the current travel restriction should be lifted,” confirms Vincent Degert, Ambassador of the EU Delegation to Mauritius and Seychelles, speaking to l’express. However, he insists that this does not mean a total travel ban between Mauritius and the EU. 

List based on containment measures

So who is allowed to travel to EU states from Mauritius? “EU citizens, family members of EU citizens and residents, and people with an essential reason to come to Europe should be allowed to travel. Travellers with an essential reason to come to Europe include, for instance, transport personnel, diplomats, passengers travelling for imperative family reasons and third-country nationals travelling for study purposes,” lists Degert. 

The list, he explains, has been drawn up based on containment measures such as physical distancing, the epidemiological situation, economic and social considerations as well as reciprocity from states outside the EU. 

The EU’s decision to leave Mauritius off the list of ‘safe countries’ has raised eyebrows within Mauritius, given the contrasting Covid-19 numbers between the eight countries that have been included in the list and Mauritius. Between 18 and 25 October – the week that the EU ‘safe list’ was last updated, the World Health Organization (WHO) counted 116 new Covid-19 cases in Australia, 3,878 in Japan, 49 in New Zealand, 89 in Rwanda, 61 in Singapore, 637 in South Korea, 50 in Thailand, 309 in Uruguay and 185 in China. All of whom figure on the list, urging EU member states to remove restrictions on nationals of these countries from entering the EU. 

By contrast, Mauritius, with no locally-transmitted Covid-19 cases since 26 April, does not figure on the list. Questioned on this, Degert responded that, “while the criteria are objective, applying them is not a mechanical exercise – it involves exercising some qualitative judgment. This is a responsibility of the Council.” 

He added that the list is “not set in stone” and is revised every couple of weeks. Degert said that the EU delegation is providing information to Brussels “with a view to the inclusion of Mauritius on the list”. 

Since reopening its borders on 1 October, Mauritius is struggling to woo back European tourists to revive its tourism industry, which came to a grinding halt back in March when the country closed off international travel following a local outbreak of Covid-19.