French police turn away passengers as new Covid rules kick in

Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport - Travellers must also present proof of a recent negative Covid test.

French border police turned away some passengers bound for non-EU destinations Monday as new rules came into force banning flights to and from countries outside the bloc.

Prime Minister Jean Castex announced the measure Friday as part of new efforts to contain Covid-19 infections and avoid another nationwide lockdown.

Travellers must also present proof of a recent negative Covid test.

Only urgent reasons for travel are accepted and border police require written proof before allowing passengers to board, as Toure, a Malian national, found out when he tried to leave France for Bamako without the necessary document.

“I said that my mother, whom I hadn’t seen in a while, was ill but they told me I needed proof,” Toure, who withheld his last name, told AFP in the 2E terminal at Paris’s main airport Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle.

After being turned away Toure, who works for a French public works foundation, managed to get hold of his mother’s doctor in Bamako who sent him a barely legible note by WhatsApp. He tried again, and this time was waved through.

By curbing international travel, the government hopes to get a better grip on the circulation of the coronavirus and its recent variants, which have been spreading at a fearsome pace.

“The idea is to limit the outbound-inbound loops between France and abroad,” Julien Gentile, head of the border police for the Roissy and Le Bourget airports, told AFP.