Covid: UK red list criticised as 'travel apartheid' by Nigeria

Nigeria has criticised the UK's travel restrictions after it was placed on the red list amid fears over the Omicron Covid-19 variant.

"What is expected is a global approach, not selective," Sarafa Tunji Isola, Nigeria's high commissioner to the UK, told the BBC on Monday.

He also echoed comments made by the UN's chief, who described restrictions imposed on some southern African countries as "travel apartheid".

New rules came into force at 04:00 GMT.

It means travellers arriving from Nigeria will be required to enter hotel quarantine - at their own expense - and isolate for 10 days.

"The travel ban is apartheid in the sense that we are not dealing with an endemic," Mr Isola told the Today programme. "We are dealing with a pandemic. Whenever we have a challenge there must be collaboration."

UK government minister Kit Malthouse, meanwhile, said the wording "travel apartheid" was "very unfortunate language".

"We understand the difficulties that's created by these travel restrictions, but we're trying to buy a little bit of time so that our scientists can work on the virus and assess how difficult it's going to be" he told the BBC.

The UK's Department of Health and Social Care said all countries collect data differently, meaning it is hard to directly compare the information. It said the government would continue to keep the data under review.