From Iceland — 10 Tourists Detained At Keflavík Airport

10 Tourists Detained At Keflavík Airport

Published May 10, 2021

Alina Maurer
Photo by
Jeff Hitchcock/Wikimedia Commons

On Saturday, 10 people arriving at Keflavík Airport were stopped from entering the country. Due to a new regulation by the Minister of Justice, unnecessary travel from and to specified danger areas is banned from the April 27th and valid until the end of May. The people arriving did not meet the conditions for entering the country, as they arrived from Spain.

Unnecessary travel banned

Sigurgeir Ómar Sigmundsson, chief police officer at Keflavík, stated in an interview with RÚV, “We have ten people in our custody who are not allowed to come into the country on the basis of a regulation by the Minister of Justice. These people are not vaccinated and their trip is considered unnecessary. They don’t have residency or family ties here. They are tourists.”

Foreigners coming from or having stayed in an area where the 14-day incidence infection rate exceeds 700 per 100,000 population for more than 24 hours in the last 14 days, or when sufficient information from an area is not available, are not allowed to enter the country.

Tourists will be sent back

Spain has just been put on the danger list last Friday. The ban applies to all foreigners, both EEA and EFTA citizens, as well as all third-country nationals. Exceptions are given in the new regulation and do not apply to those with permanent residency and those vaccinated.

When asked what will await the 10 people from Spain, Sigurgeir answered, ”The National Commissioner of Police’s support department will take care of the transport and they will probably be sent back with the next machine.”

He mentioned further that those people have apparently not reacted well to the news.

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