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Portuguese ambassador accuses UK of 'immense' damage to his country with travel ban on holidaymakers

GettyImages-907458310.jpg
GettyImages-907458310.jpg

The Portuguese ambassador has accused Britain of causing "immense" and potentially "lasting" damage to his country with its travel ban, as he claimed its decision was based on unclear science.

In an article for The Daily Telegraph, Manuel Lobo Antunes said he would “make no attempt” to hide his disappointment at the British Government’s decision to exclude Portugal from a list of 74 countries and territories exempted from the UK’s 14 day quarantine.

He said this was compounded by the anomaly where the Portuguese islands of Madeira and the Azores had been given a clean bill of health as safe destinations by the Foreign Office yet were still subject to UK quarantine. “I must confess it is hard to understand why,” he said.

His comments escalate the diplomatic row with Britain which has seen a Coronavirus outbreak in and around Lisbon lead to UK holidaymakers being barred from the whole of Portugal, even though its most popular destination, the Algarve, has some of the lowest rates in Europe.

British Government sources, however, indicated they would only change Portugal’s status once it was “safe” to do so, although it is understood there are negotiations over whether Madeira, which has direct flights to the UK and strong British links, and the Azores could be exempted earlier. 

Mr Antunes wrote: “We feel that the scientific arguments supporting the UK´s government decision, which we obviously respect...were lacking in detail.

“The economic impact of the UK’s decision to keep Portugal under quarantine is immense and there are fears it could be lasting if not scrapped at the next review on the 27th July.”

Many of the 1,005 flights which would have carried up to 184,000 people from the UK to Portugal will have to be cancelled in July, data from the analytics firm Cirium shows. Each year the Algarve welcomes two million Britons, accounting for a fifth of its tourist income.

Mr Antunes acknowledged the Covid-19 rate of 22.1 cases per 100.000 of the population - three times England’s - was “higher than we would like,” but it was “in decline” after a lockdown in 19 Lisbon parishes and the initial wave of transmission was “past its peak.”

He indicated the Portuguese Government - which has the sixth most comprehensive testing regime in the EU - had been penalised for a more efficient approach that had detected more infections.

Portugal’s anger over its treatment was further exposed yesterday by its Prime Minister António Costa who accused the EU of failing to create a uniform criteria for opening borders, which had led to  “extraordinary discrepancies” and even “cases of pure retaliation.”

“There are countries that were recently placed on red lists, not because they have a high incidence of Covid-19, but because they had placed others on red lists,” he said, adding that the treatment of  Portugal was “manifestly unfair.”

A UK Government source said: “We want to see a return to normal international travel with Portugal, but we can only act once we are certain that we can do so safely and responsibly.

“In deciding which countries and territories to include in this initial list, we have been guided by the science. We will continue to take an objective, evidence-based approach. As the risk from Covid-19 reduces, we hope we will be able to make travel between our two countries easier.”

The potential additions to the list of 74 countries and territories are due on July 27 but Government officials suggested countries could be removed or added before then depending on Covid-19 spikes or declines - as happened on Friday when UK quarantine was reinstated for Serbia after its Coronavirus outbreak.

It emerged yesterday that police have not issued a single fine for breaches of quarantine in the UK, and just 10 for people who refused to wear masks on public transport since the measures were introduced last month.