COVID-19 travel advisories paving the way for a globally unified legislation

Since March, 2020 international travel has been hoping to recover from the depression in revenues and functionality, and the key driving factors providing the impetus onto this path of recovery being the commercial Aviation Industry and the vulnerable Tourism Sector.
Mitigating a global pandemic demands a global collaborative response. The recent onset of the SARS-CoV-2 Virus spreading to pandemic levels has uncovered the deficiency in policy frameworks that each and every COVID-19-affected country can reciprocally act upon to while maintaining its own sovereignty at its borders.
Given the context and pragmatism of the travel advisories which have been continually declared by the Foreign Affairs Ministries and Governments of the pandemic-affected countries while experiencing the surge in new infections, it would be quite reasonable to expect the travel advisories to serve as a blueprint for drafting a composite and globally acceptable legislation on the movement of international travellers across country borders while enforcing measures to mitigate the spread of the pandemic through travel-related exposures.
A minor limitation may arise because the travel advisories issued by the respective country would predominantly have to be based on a country’s sovereign power to legislate on the subject of Public Health and Disease Control. This is where the World Health Organisation (WHO) can enable the consistent integration of a policy framework that would be acceptable to all countries, so that physical borders no longer hamper the effort to move towards a globally unified legislation on International Travel Management during a pandemic.
Like for instance in India, the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 serves as the legal basis for the Indian government to issue restrictions and regulations in the interest of regulating public health and stemming from this statutory power the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) along with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) has been continually extending the international travel ban on arrivals from other countries until August 31, 2021. The exception being the International Travel Bubble Agreements which India has inked with the reciprocal countries based on certain conditions.
Whereas Spain on the other hand as of August 2, 2021 has opened its borders for tourism inviting fully vaccinated travellers originating from India. Although the Covishield being the only acceptable vaccine being approved by the Spanish Ministry of Health which has to be administered to the Indian travellers visiting Spain. Another important consideration being the second dose of the vaccine needs to be administered to the prospective Indian travellers 14 days prior to the date of intended departure.
The above two examples clearly indicate two disproportionate levels of readiness by India and Spain in dealing with incoming international travellers and this gap represents the necessity for a globally enforceable legislation which can bridge the levels of readiness to deal with the onset of another wave of new infections pertaining to COVID-19.
Consequently, in the absence of a global unified legislation to coincide with every country’s unique stand on the acceptance of international arrivals at its borders, the various travel advisories which had been issued since March, 2020 would serve to provide impetus and foresight to enacting a global legislation on the topic of COVID-19, vaccinated travellers and quarantine norms. Especially, the travel advisories were issued based on real events occurring during the onset of pandemic such as a second wave, rise in fatalities in comorbid patients, etc. Conversely, most of the statutory legislation is customarily written with a prospective intention, sometimes lacking the foresight of the situation to be governed and hence not always applicable to the real world circumstances. Hopefully, the previously issued travel advisories shall offer insights into what really needs to be done to manage travel during a pandemic.
Immunology Science promises not only to bring the travel recovery to a restart this year, but is also saving millions of lives through the promise of a boosted immune response to the SARS-CoV-2 Virus — in spite of over three million vaccine doses having been lost globally over the past year.
What a unified global legislation should intend to prevent is a scenario wherein as the vaccine inequality lingers and deepens, travel demand to foreign lands continue to grow, especially where unvaccinated populations reside. What certainly need to be avoided are passport privileges turning into vaccine passport privileges even before the world’s entire population is yet to receive their first dose.