Netherlands Lifts Entry Restrictions on Several EU/Schengen Countries & 7 Third-Countries

The Dutch government has decided to permit entry to the Netherlands for the nationals of several countries that are currently considered as “safe countries” due to the low number of COVID-19 cases registered in their territory in the recent week.

From May 15 and on, nationals of five European countries – Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Malta and Portugal – will be eligible to enter the Netherlands for tourism purposes, alongside residents of the North Aegean region of Greece and the Spanish Balearic Islands.

At the same time, travel for non-essential purposes has been permitted for arrivals from the following seven third countries:

Australia
Israel
New Zealand
Rwanda
Singapore
South Korea
Thailand
Arrivals from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau will also be permitted to enter the country as soon as China lifts entry restrictions on European travellers.

Travellers reaching the Netherlands from any of the countries listed above, as well as from the Caribbean Islands under the authority of the Kingdom of the Netherlands – Aruba, Curaçao, St Maarten, Saba, and St Eustatius, no negative test result or self-quarantine is required.

“If you are coming from a country where the risk of contracting COVID-19 is low (a safe country), you do not need to show a negative test result when you travel to the Netherlands. You are also not required to self-quarantine when you arrive in the Netherlands,” the Dutch authorities note in a notice published by The Netherlands and You, an official website of the government.

At the same time, the government has decided to exempt arrivals from countries outside the safe list who travel to the Netherlands to visit family for critical reasons, such as illness, death or childbirth.

Currently, Netherlands has paused all travel from India, South Africa and countries in Central and South America due to new and more dangerous COVID-19 variants spread in these countries. The ban will remain effective until June 1 and includes the following:

Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
French Guiana
Guyana
India
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
South Africa
Suriname
Uruguay
Venezuela
Netherlands has had strict entry restrictions in place ever since new COVID-19 variants started to spread across the world.

Due to these restrictions, the travel and tourism sector has suffered the most. Many have recently called on the authorities to ease restrictions, while the Netherlands’ Board of Tourism and Conventions (NBTC) has come forward with a proposal to create a travel bubble between the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany, which would facilitate travel among these three territories if the introduction of COVID-19 vaccination passports is delayed.

The Netherlands is currently the 21st country in the world with the highest number of Coronavirus cases detected so far (1,600,993). 205,658 of them are still active, while another 17,456 infected persons have lost their lives to the virus.

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