The UAE residents in Pakistan can now travel back

Previously The UAE amid the rising COVID cases extended suspension of flights from Pakistan until 28^th July. However now its government has announced that from 5th August. It will start accepting both residence visa holders and transit flights from Pakistan.

The UAE government imposed continuous travel bans on multiple South Asian countries in these past few months due to the rise in the COVID delta cases. But have finally announced to lift them. The UAE government says that residence visa holders in Pakistan can start to come back from August 5. Moreover the government also allowed transit flights. This is a good news for the UAE residence visa holders who were facing issues in going back from Pakistan because of the constant travel bans. Apart from Pakistan these rules apply on 4 different South Asian countries including Sri Lanka, Uganda, Nepal and India. All of which were previously facing travel bans similar to that of Pakistan.

Requirements for transit passengers

UAE is an International travel hub that gets transit flights from all over the world. The Dubai International airport is the most common airport for transit passengers coming in from South Asian countries. With the opening of transition flights, the UAE government is expecting a huge amount of transit passenger traffic. To tackle the transit passenger traffic, the government has come up with precautionary measures and have implied strict rules that the transit passengers will have to follow.

The transit passengers coming in will go into a separate lounge. Moreover, the government has also made it compulsory for transit passengers coming in from India, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Uganda to have a negative COVID 19 PCR test certificate. The government requires the test to be 72 hours or less before the departure.

Requirements for residence visa holders

The United Arab Emirates has a booming economy and is far more developed than the countries to its East. Particularly the South Asian countries. This makes a large part of the working force in South Asian countries to go towards UAE in search of better opportunities. There are large amounts of Pakistani people that work in the UAE and own a temporary resident visa.

Also See: Pakistani passport ranked worst again this year in henely passport index.

The travel bans imposed by UAE made a lot of Pakistani people that worked in there, to get stranded in Pakistan, since they were no longer allowed to go back to UAE. However, with the announcement, resident visa holders can now go back. UAE is expecting a big amount of workers to come back from South Asian countries

The residence visa holders coming back to UAE should have a valid residence visa. Moreover, only residence visa holders that have previously been fully vaccinated in the UAE and hold an official vaccination certificate are permitted to return.

Exemptions for non-vaccinated passengers travelling to UAE

While the rules for both, the residence visa holders and transit passengers are strict. The government has offered exemptions to some specific passengers. The list of which includes golden and silver visa holders, health and education workers, government employees and EXPO students.