In everything, prudence is the mother of virtue.
We will have to wait a little longer before jumping on the first plane to Tokyo or Tel Aviv.
The Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that the conditions for departure to 7 non-EU countries would be relaxed as of tomorrow, Friday March 12.
No more need for a "compelling reason", therefore, for travelers to and from Australia, South Korea, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Singapore.
Reason given:
"the very wide distribution of the British variant in France"
and
"the specific health situation of these countries"
.
Read also: Paris eases travel conditions for 7 countries outside the European Union, including the United Kingdom
From there to seeing a blank check to go around the world, there is only one step which one cannot cross.
On closer inspection, the health situation in some of these countries remains very worrying, when it is not simply impossible to travel there because of closed borders.
Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore do not accept tourists on their territory.
South Korea, for its part, has largely restricted its access to the French, who must now apply for a short-stay visa (request subject to presentation of a medical certificate), present a PCR test less than 72 hours before departure. and submit, on arrival, to
"a special immigration procedure that can immobilize them between 6 hours and 24 hours, or even more".
The announcement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is therefore surprising, a fortiori when it is accompanied by an invitation to
"limit international travel as much as possible"
which looks like a paradoxical injunction.
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Health pass: "The time has not come" but the "question has to be anticipated", affirms Olivier Véran
To read also: In Europe, outside Europe: what are the “compelling reasons” that make it possible to travel?
This measure is in no way an incentive to resume tourism.
A measure for expatriates who do not say their name
Contacted by Le
Figaro
, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wanted to provide details.
"This measure is in no way an incentive to the resumption of tourism or a revival of international mobility
", we warn
.
Before explaining that it is above all a question of allowing French people living abroad to resume a normal life: “
The decision of December 29, 2020 to impose compelling reasons for the countries of outer space. European Union has placed enormous constraints on expatriate French communities and bi-national couples.
By removing these compelling reasons, a French family residing in Singapore may, for example, return to France without justification.
"
The message posted today on Twitter by the Secretary of State for Tourism, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, is also addressed to" French people abroad ", as if they were the only ones affected by this relaxation.
Except that they are not mentioned in the press release of the ministry… Really very cryptic.
"This measure perhaps allows the French to leave their country, but not to enter Singapore"
, warns the tourist office of the City State, denouncing a
"unilateral"
decision
,
taken
"without consultation"
.
“If a French person wishes to go to one of the seven countries, he no longer has to justify himself to the border police at the time of departure.
Afterwards, the fact that he can enter the territory or not does not depend on us, but on state decisions on the spot and the conditions applied (quarantine, isolation in a hotel).
We are therefore not in the consideration of leisure trips, but of necessary trips
,
”
attempts to specify the ministry.
Possible to leave France to go to Japan, therefore, but not say that the country will let you in ...
"To
think
that we are going to spend the next weekend in the United Kingdom seems premature"
, summarizes, pragmatic, the British tourist office.
