A travel ban for Cape Verde is announced for Cape Verde. The announcement was made on the 17th with the ban starting from 18th March 2020. Tourists currently staying in Cape Verde, would need to wait for further information. Those on package holidays would receive information from Tour Operators. Flight only travelers would need to make their own inquiries.
Expats living or working on the islands also needed to consider the options available for travel, or whether to remain in Cape Verde. English translation :
Travel ban announced for the Archipelago
Quote by the Prime Minister, José Ulisses Correia e Silva 17th March 2020
Having considered the situation of the epidemic in Portugal and several other countries of Europe; in the USA, Brazil and certain African countries, the government decided (with effect from March 18th):
- That it was prohibited to dock cruises and sailing ships and the landing of passengers in Cape Verde Ports.
- The landing of crew arriving at Cape Verde Ports on cargo, fishing and similar ships is prohibited.
- To ban air links with Portugal and all European countries marked with covid-19 epidemic and with the USA, Brazil, Senegal and Nigeria. The Ban would be for a period of three weeks. The ban may be anticipated or extended as the epidemic has developed in these countries.
- The Ban would exclude: cargo flights.
- There was an allowance for citizens on holiday or in service in Cape Verde to return to their countries of origin or residence.
- Urgent medical evacuations and supplies of hospital medicines would be permitted.
- Materials and consumables in an emergency regime will be covered and guaranteed under health flights.
Transit restrictions announced in Cape Verde
On Sal and other islands, tourists on package holidays were notified of potential ‘rescue’ flights being organised aquí. These rescue flights were permitted to collect travelers and return them to their home country or place of residence. Those on package holidays would receive further notification from their tour operator. Individual travelers had to make their own inquiries, that was of course, if they’d heard the news about the ban.
There were tourists who were island hopping who, would firstly need to return to the island on which they arrived in Cape Verde.
There was little information known about tourists travelling by ferry between the islands, or those on any cruises visiting the islands.
Following the corona virus travel ban, further measures were introduced by the Cape Verde Government to help stop the spread of covid-19.
UK Airports
Some UK tourists had only recently arrived on the island for a one or two week holiday. Those on UK package holidays were due to fly back to Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester and London Gatwick at the end of their holiday. The UK flights were due to leave Sal on different days of the week.
British tourists with outbound flight tickets, were all informed that they needed to turn up at Sal airport on Monday 23rd March. Empty TUI planes arrived on Sal on the 23rd to fly passengers to London Gatwick and Manchester. Once in UK, passengers who’d traveled out of Bristol or Birmingham to Sal, would be transported back to those airports. TUI UK staff also departed on these flights, as these were the last flights out of Cape Verde during the pandemic crisis.
The image below shows the queue that had formed outside the departure entrance at Sal International Airport on the 23rd. Other international flights were also landing to take nationals back to other countries on he same day.
Cape Verde declares a state of emergency over covid-19. Measures were introduced by the Government to try and stop people spreading the corona virus. The ‘Cape Verde Tips’ website lists a number of the announcements relating to the islands and the corona virus. For further information visit: http://www.capeverdetips.co.uk/news-cape-verde/cape-verde-flight-ban-and-news-links-17th-march-2020
Please note, the Expats Cape Verde website was re-launched this month using WordPress instead of Business Catalyst (April 2020). The site is still under-development, some links need re-setting, images replacing and text updating.
Internal links
To download pdf’s or open other website information please visit our ‘Links’ page. Please note we try to keep these relevant to the information we are sharing on our site: https://expatscapeverde.com/links/
You may also like to visit our Yellow Business Listing for local contacts: https://expatscapeverde.com/yellow-business-listings-cape-verde-islands/ and https://expatscapeverde.com/yellow-business-links-sal-island/
