The German word Fernweh is hard to translate. Fern means ‘far away’ and Weh is a sense of aching. The closest English word is wanderlust, the desire to wander, actually a word borrowed from German. However, it does not quite express that aching longing for travel that has overcome many of us since the start of the pandemic. When in March/April of last year, some Schengen countries (among the first, my native Austria) suspended or heavily restricted non-residents’ right to enter, for the first time in my life, I would not have been able to travel anywhere within the Schengen Area in an afternoon. Most countries in the world, including the UK, followed suit and we were enveloped by a feeling of confinement.

Travel bans have been a necessary measure to prevent the spread of Covid-19 from high-risk to lower-risk regions, but they are unsustainable in a globalized world where more and more people commute for work/education, and where the economies of many cities rely on tourism. Requiring travellers to quarantine upon arrival and/or undergo mandatory testing for Covid-19 made some international travel possible again while the world was waiting for vaccines, but quarantine and testing requirements still mean that tourism and shorter visits of friends or family abroad are largely off the table.

The cost and stress of quarantine and testing have meant for me that I have not seen my family in months, while other international students have remained stuck at home, unable to return to Glasgow. Having to quarantine upon arrival means that short stays are rarely worth it, and, particularly as students, many of us feel uncomfortable with spending a lot of money on travelling home just to quarantine for another two weeks until we are finally able to see our friends and family. Not to mention the additional costs of booking tests, short-notice flights and sometimes hotel rooms for quarantining, has made travel unaffordable for many.

The Covid-19 vaccine is currently our best bet for restarting international travel. If you, like me, are a not-at-risk 18-29 year old and not an essential worker, you have just become eligible for registering to get the vaccine (and have hopefully registered already)! Besides the obvious, that our risk of falling ill with Covid-19 will be much lower, being able to travel freely at some point is a key motivator particularly for my age group. While PCR and lateral flow tests have allowed for some international travel, travellers usually have to quarantine upon arrival, and many countries still discourage travelling. Travellers also risk catching Covid-19 from long queues, on flights with suboptimal social distancing measures, or while travelling to and from the airport (see the WHO, March 2021).

Reintroducing freedom of travel while ensuring safety will require secure and convenient ways for people to prove their vaccination status. The NHS app is pioneering one such way that allows travellers to provide proof of vaccination. Meanwhile, talks are underway between Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and the EU Commission, as well as several countries, among them the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, which aim for a globally recognised vaccine passport. Such a document would allow fully vaccinated people to travel freely without needing to quarantine, allowing countries to restart their tourism industries and enabling business-related short stays. Digital passports which allow border authorities to confirm whether passengers have received the vaccine are currently being trialled by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Once someone has received the vaccine and is unlikely to spread Covid-19, restricting their ability to travel goes against the spirit of free travel that is shared by a growing majority of countries in the world. It is not without reason that Article 13 of the Declaration of Human Rights reads: ‘Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.’ Vaccine passports will be a crucial step in restoring the freedom to return to one’s country of residency. In particular, university students, immigrants and people belonging to an ethnic minority with family abroad should not be prevented from going home and seeing their families for any longer than necessary. Given that people from these demographics are somewhat more likely to be economically disadvantaged and hesitant to pay for tests or quarantine facilities, efforts to render these obsolete are crucial. 

However, as so often, the devil lies in the detail. We have to be careful that vaccine passports do not end up worsening inequalities. The BMJ journal by the British Medical Association warns that 25% of the world population may not have access to the Covid-19 vaccine until 2022 or later, a contributing factor being that wealthy countries in Europe and North America reserved 2-3x more doses than necessary. If vaccine passports become prerequisite for travel before the vaccine has been equally distributed, this could have adverse economic impacts on less wealthy countries.

The question of distribution is also relevant within the UK. Some disadvantaged groups, like people facing language barriers, or those at increased risk of adverse reactions due to health problems, may be more hesitant to get vaccinated. And should the vaccine passport be a digital document similar to the one currently trialled by the IATA, this would have obvious implications for the 22% of the UK population who lack basic digital skills, or the 49% of households among those with an income between £6,000-10,000 that are not connected to the internet (see the Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research).

Still, despite continuing grave inequalities, the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic has seen communities around the world come together in unprecedented ways fills me with hope. I do believe that travelling can be possible under current circumstances and that there is a way of distributing vaccines and vaccine passports, perhaps in both digital and physical formats, that does not leave people behind. I believe these issues to be surmountable, the question ultimately being one of political commitment to equality.