Indians Not Allowed. How Come?

Global travel bans on Indians are illogical, and may be reflective of prejudice

- Chetan Bhagat

At the time of writing this, certain EU countries have finally approved Covishield as an acceptable vaccine for their vaccine passport programme. But the central European Medicines Authority has still not given approval to Covishield, even though it has approved an identical AstraZeneca vaccine.

More importantly, travellers from India are not allowed in most parts of the world. The US, Canada, Europe, most countries in Asia and several in the rest of the world have simply shut the doors on our nation. These travel directives, issued in April due to the deadly second wave in India and the spread of the Delta variant, remain in place despite our much improved situation in July.

Daily new cases in India have dropped 90%, from their peak of 400,000+ in early May to less than 50,000 on July 1. While we still have a lot of Indians left to vaccinate, over 60 million or 4% of our population is fully vaccinated. Around 280 million Indians or 20% have received at least one dose.

However, there is no talk of when other countries’ draconian, unfair, and potentially racist directives will be removed. You could have tested negative at departure and arrival. You could be fully vaccinated. You could even be willing to do a two-week quarantine upon arrival. However, if you come from India, you are simply banned. No flights, no entry. Nothing.

You could have a job to do, families to reunite with, a college to attend – countries will just not have you if you come from India, but they are OK with travellers from other nations.