Turkey again not included in EU's safe travel list

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The European Union (EU) has not included Turkey in its list of "safe countries" to travel, which is updated every two weeks.

Turkey is still the "orange list," which consists of countries that are not recommended to be visited for non-essential purposes such as holidays and family visits.

People returning from Turkey are recommended to be held in quarantine for 14 days. Citizens of Turkey cannot enter the EU unless they are closer relatives to an EU citizen, long-term residents of the EU or work in the health sector.

According to the new list, residents of Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia, and Uruguay can enter freely the territory of the EU. There are no new countries added to the previous list released on June 30 while Serbia and Montenegro have been removed.

Visitors from China are also welcome in case it grants the same rights to EU citizens.

The EU is committed to gradually open its external borders which had been closed to contain the spread of Covid-19 since mid-March.

The member states agreed to update the list every two weeks giving green light to travel from countries based on epidemiological criteria.

Residents of the mini-states of Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and the Vatican are treated as EU nationals for entry.

The list is published according to a non-binding agreement among 30 countries, including four EU countries who have not joined yet the Schengen area — Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Cyprus — and four non-EU members of the borderless zone, namely Norway, Lichtenstein, Switzerland, and Iceland.

Governments can freely limit or expand the list, but those allowing travelers from non-listed external countries risk having their EU peers close the borders again. (EKN/VK)