MPs urge UK-Israel travel corridor amid mass vaccination campaigns

Bury MP Christian Wakeford led calls to allow a route to more freedom, saying it would 'make sense' given the Jewish state's success in inoculating millions

Empty check-in counters at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, before the first peak of the pandemic

MPs this week began calling for a UK-Israel travel corridor, with Israel slowly emerging from lockdown and 20 percent of Brits having had their first jab.

Conservative MP Christian Wakeford led calls for the Department of Transport to consider allowing a route, following the announcement on Israel’s popular Army Radio that Israel could be the first country to allow UK tourists.

While that currently remains conjecture, Wakeford and colleagues were “massively supportive”, he said. “Considering Israel’s successful vaccine roll-out, it would certainly make sense. I have spoken to Department for Transport colleagues and will be pushing for Israel to become a travel corridor quickly.”

Under the current UK Cvid-19 restrictions, British citizens cannot travel abroad unless they have a “legally permitted reason to do so”. It is illegal to travel abroad for holidays and other leisure purposes.

Israel has been in full lockdown since 8 January, but several Jewish families have in recent days sought to travel from the UK to Israel via Moldova, citing “rescue flights” for Israeli citizens.

The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has said it is “not advising those already travelling in Israel to leave at this time”.

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