50 UK lawmakers question Boris Johnson over Pakistan ‘red list’ travel ban

By Muhammad JuniadPublished On 05 Jan 2023

• British parliamentarians want to know why Pakistan and Bangladesh have been added to UK's 'red list' travel ban.
• Write letter to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson asking for evidence to show why these specific countries have been added to the red list.
• This is the biggest intervention yet made by the MPs after Pakistan and Bangladesh were added to a list of risky countries.

LONDON: Around 50 British parliamentarians have asked UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to urgently answer and give evidence on why Pakistan and Bangladesh have been added to the “red list” countries starting from April 9, 2021.

The letter has been written by parliamentarian Yasmin Qureshi, the chair of the All Parties Parliamentary Group on Pakistan (APPG), and signed by parliamentarians from the Labour and Conservative groups. 

This is the biggest intervention yet made by the MPs after Pakistan and Bangladesh were added to a list of risky countries and comes soon after British Pakistani lawyer Barrister Rashid Ahmed announced that he will be initiating a legal challenge to the UK government for singling out Pakistan.

The letter, passed to this reporter by Qureshi, questions the UK government’s decision to place Pakistan and Bangladesh on the travel “Red List” with the ban coming into force at very short notice at 4am on April 9, 2021.

It says: “The placing of these countries on the red list will have a huge impact on many UK residents. The UK has over 1.1 million British Pakistanis and a large number of British Bangladeshis. Whilst we support measures where there is a clear need to act to protect the UK in relation to COVID-19, we have major concerns about the way this plan has been implemented without providing clear evidence for that decision.

“Many UK citizens have travelled to those countries in accordance with the government’s COVID-19 guidelines. The vast majority will have travelled to visit family, including elderly relatives, whom they may not have seen for over a year. They will have already paid for return flights but are now in a position where they will have to pay for new flights in order to return before the ban is put in place. Flight costs are currently around £2,000 per single ticket. Most of the people who have travelled will have paid for return flights priced at around £500 which are now useless.”

The MPs have said that the vast majority of UK residents currently in those countries will have had to save up for some time to fly to Pakistan and Bangladesh.