Belgian government lifts travel ban in red zone

A police check at the Franco-Belgian border.

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They advance, then they retreat.

The Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs returned on Monday to the ban on its nationals from going to areas classified as red due to the coronavirus epidemic.

The absence of our neighbors in Nord-Pas-de-Calais therefore only lasted a week.

Belgians wishing to enjoy either the shops or the beauty of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais landscapes will be able to cross the border again from Friday.

The two French departments are however still classified among the active circulation zones of the coronavirus, and that will not change in four days.

The Belgian government has simply lifted the ban on travel in the red zones for non-essential reasons which concerned its nationals since last week.

“Until now, we were the only European country to prohibit and not to advise against travel to red zones,” admitted Foreign Minister Philippe Goffin.

Nothing changes for cross-border workers

Suddenly, it is no longer forbidden, but "strictly not recommended" for a resident of Mouscron to go for a drink in Lille.

The precise modalities have not yet been defined.

At the present time, Belgian nationals returning from red zones must always comply with a mandatory quarantine measure and screening.

The same applies to people living in a red zone wishing to travel to Belgium for a period of more than 48 hours.

However, for people living at the Franco-Belgian border and frontier workers, these measures do not have to be as we wrote last Thursday.

These people "are authorized to move on either side of the border to go to their place of work or to perform other usual activities", such as visiting their lover or buying their tobacco.

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