UK Citizens Start Petition to Get SA off ‘Red List’: #TravelBan
- UK citizens are fighting the #travelban imposed on South Africa, calling for the African country to be removed from the UK's 'Red List'
- According to petitioners, the travel restrictions are unfair and have created disastrous socio-economic problems for both countries
- So far, the petition has already gathered more than 15 000 signatures
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UK citizens are hoping to petition their government following widespread frustrations with the travel ban imposed on South Africa. Mzansi is currently on the UK's 'Red List', making travel for UK visitors and South Africans hoping to visit the European nation very difficult.
Source: Getty Images
The UK introduced tighter travel restrictions to reduce the introduction and transmission of new variants of Covid-19 currently prevalent in what the nation is calling Red List countries.
Other countries included on the list include Pakistan, Turkey and Brazil.
However, signees of one petition argue that the restrictions may not be based on sound research. Created on 10 August by UK citizen Ben Cope, petitioners say travel restrictions to southern Africa are unfair and are inflicting real social, environmental and economic hardship on families, businesses and ecosystems, Good Things Guy reports.
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At the moment travel between the UK and South Africa is limited to UK citizens, Irish nationals and residents of the UK. Even so, travellers are expected to undergo strict Covid-9 protocols and at great expense to their own pockets.
If you have travelled to a restricted country in the last 10 days, regardless of vaccination status, British nationals must:
- Take a Covid-19 test before departure and present your negative results
- Complete a passenger locator form
- Self-isolate for 10 days in a government-approved quarantine hotel, booked and paid for at the passenger's expense
The travel restrictions affect citizens of both countries as South Africans are unable to get VISAs at the moment and many UK nationals cannot afford the costs associated with the extra time needed to quarantine.
Only British citizens or UK residents have the right to sign the petition and unsurprisingly, much support has come from areas popular with South African expats, Business Insider reports.
15 177 people have already added their signatures.
Facebook bans Russian anti-vaxxer influencer network over false material
In more world news, Briefly News previously reported that Facebook has clamped down on accounts linked to a coronavirus anti-vaccine campaign. The company stated that it has taken down a network of Russian-linked accounts.
The accounts were linked to a marketing agency that sought to recruit influencers to spread anti-vaccine content.
The anti-vax campaign was run by Fazze, a subsidiary of UK-registered marketing agency AdNow. The company is said to have Russian affiliations, according to Reuters.
The campaign was aimed at people in parts of Latin America and India, and, to a lesser extent, the United States through Facebook platforms.
The campaign was dubbed a "disinformation laundromat" by Facebook's investigators as it involved posting false articles and petitions on websites such as Medium, Reddit and Change.org.
On Facebook and Instagram, fake accounts were created by the company to circulate misinformation regarding Covid-19 vaccines.
According to eNCA, 65 accounts from the Facebook social media platform and 243 profiles on Instagram were taken down by Facebook after they were found to have links to the influencer campaign lead by Fazze. Fazze was also completely banned from Facebook's platform in July.
The campaign targeted vaccines such as Pfizer and the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines, once claiming that the AstraZeneca vaccine would turn people into chimpanzees.
Journalists were prompted to investigate Fazze by influencers from France and Germany who became suspicious of the email pitches sent to them by the company.
Facebook says they have not yet identified who hired Fazze to run the campaign but have given the necessary information to authorities for further investigation.
Source: Briefly News
