Moroccan travelers to EU facing problems due to Chinese vaccines

People from African countries, such as Morocco, are facing difficulties arriving in the European Union after getting Chinese vaccines, which are not accepted by the EU.

“It seems very much as if a vaccine has become a visa,” said Moroccan columnist Karim Boukhari.

“I have my visa, but my vaccine is Chinese. It’s as if I don’t have a visa.”

The EU and the member state only allowing people from a small number of non-EU countries to visit on non-essential trips.

The only African country on that list is Rwanda.

“Visa-holders are not automatically authorized to travel to France and must respect the entry rules as regards vaccinations,” cautioned the French embassy in Morocco in a tweet this week.

Travelers to Europe must prove that they are fully vaccinated with one of the four anti-COVID-19 jabs approved by the European Medicines Agency – the AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer/BioNTech, and Moderna vaccines.

Whereas the Chinese vaccines Sinovac and Sinopharm have been the most widely used by the African continent.

That means that for the purposes of travel to France, they are considered unvaccinated.

“For those that are vaccinated, there are two categories – those vaccinated with the AstraZeneca and the others. The latter is not considered to be vaccinated outside of the country,” said the Private Newspaper.

“Our compatriots are shocked that France doesn’t recognize the Sinopharm vaccine,” an association for French expatriates in Morocco wrote in a recent open letter to the French foreign ministry.