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France adds four more countries to ‘red list’ with strict police-enforced quarantine

More travellers arriving in France will be the subject of strict police-enforced 10-day quarantines after four more countries were placed on the high risk list.

France adds four more countries to 'red list' with strict police-enforced quarantine
Photo: Ian Langsdon/AFP

The Prime Minister’s office on Friday announced that Bahrain, Colombia, Costa Rica and Uraguay have been added to the ‘red list’, with enforcement in place from Sunday, May 16th.

The 10-day self-isolation rule already applies to travellers from Turkey, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Brazil, India, Chile, South Africa and Argentina.

The requirements are also in place for anyone arriving from the French overseas département of French Guiana, which borders Brazil, the official announcement in the Journal Officiel clarified.

To date, some 7,000 travellers from affected countries have been obliged to quarantine.

Of those, 4,800 are still in isolation, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said, while 5,300 checks have been carried out on arrivals – and 280 fines of between €1,000 and €1,500 have been issued.

EXPLAINED: These are France’s new quarantine rules for arrivals from ‘high risk’ countries

The following rules apply to all travellers aged 11 and over from countries on France’s ‘red’ list:

Anyone travelling from these places must get either a PCR test 36 hours before travel OR a PCR test 72 hours before travel followed by a rapid-result antigen test 24 hours before travel

10-day quarantine can be at an address of the traveller’s choice, either at a home or a hotel (at their own cost)

Travellers must provide proof of their quarantine address when boarding (either proof of their home address or a hotel reservation) and airlines will be allowed to refuse boarding as necessary.

Travellers must then take another test on arrival in France, and confirm to border guards that they will observe the 10-day quarantine. Quarantine address proofs will be checked again at the border.

Police will then check the address provided during the 10 days to ensure the quarantine is being enforced.

Travellers will also be contacted by health authorities to remind them of the rules and offer advice. Support will be available if needed for essential errands. 

Essential errands are permitted between 10am and 12 noon, and anyone not at the address provided outside those hours will be deemed in breach of quarantine and fined between €1,000 to €1,500.

Rules for other countries

All arrivals from countries outside the EU (including the UK) are asked to observe a seven-day quarantine and then take a test on day seven.

For the full rules on non-EU travel, click HERE.

Arrivals from within the EU do not need to quarantine in France but are required to present a negative PCR test that is less than 72 hours old. Some groups are exempt from the testing requirement including cross-border workers.

For the full rules on travel from within the EU, click HERE.

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TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of 420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of 2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some 200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of 2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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