Kurdistan lifts travel ban with India, but arriving passengers must quarantine

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region on Monday lifted a travel ban on passenger flights to and from India in place since the South Asian nation was overrun with the coronavirus delta variant some five months ago, stipulating that returnees must self-quarantine for two weeks as part of efforts to ease such travel restrictions.

The autonomous region of Iraq banned flights to India in April after a similar decision was taken by the federal government in Baghdad in the wake of India's unprecedented outbreak.

The regional Interior Ministry's Supreme Committee to Combat Coronavirus said in a statement received by Kurdistan 24 that it had decided to allow Iraqi citizens to travel to India through the region starting on Tuesday.

The statement added that the decision stipulated that returnees must present a negative PCR test result for them to enter the region and would be required to quarantine themselves for 14 days at sites designated by the Ministry of Health.

The committee also decided to allow foreigners who have been in India since July 1, 2021 to enter the Kurdistan Region through land border crossings, although they, too, would need to quarantine.

Read More: Kurdistan to quarantine arrivals from India amid global-high COVID infections

Editing by John J. Catherine