The European Union Commission has released a list of 54 countries that qualify for travels into Europe towards the reopening of its international borders to all international travellers and Nigeria is clearly not on the list.
Schengenvisainfo.com reported that citizens from Nigeria, Brazil, Qatar, the US, and Russia would not be allowed to make any trip into Europe until the epidemiological situation in their respective countries with regards to COVID-19 gets better.
From the report, countries whose citizens have been granted access to Europe as the union open its borders that were shut to reduce the spread of COVID-19, include Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Australia, Bahamas, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Canada.
Others on the list include are Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Palau, Paraguay, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Serbia, South Korea, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vatican City, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zambia, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Dominica, Egypt, Ethiopia, Georgia, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Lebanon and Mauritius
Eric Manner, the EU Commission spokesman said the union had the authority to decide who would gain entrance into its borders. He added that it was all due to health-based reasons
“The European Union has an internal process to determine from which countries it would be safe to accept travellers” he said.
The EU commission on June 11, presented its recommendation on the reopening of internal Schengen borders on June 15, so that Europeans could travel freely within the borderless areas just as they did before the COVID-19 pandemic.