Posted on 10/29/2014 9:15:42 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Sierra Leone, Liberia and the United Nations have condemned Australia's decision to suspend entry visas for those travelling from Ebola-infected countries, and called the move "counterproductive" and “discriminatory.” Australia's travel ban, issued Monday, closely followed the U.S.'s decision to isolate its military personnel returning from Ebola-hit countries.
Australia’s decision has also reportedly been criticized by Amnesty International while U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned that travel restrictions would severely hamper efforts to curb the virus' spread. The World Health Organization, or WHO, has also warned that travel bans and restrictive quarantine measures could discourage health workers to travel to Africa to help tackle the disease. And, authorities are concerned that deploying health workers in affected regions is becoming a challenge amid travel bans and isolation measures implemented by various governments.
World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim has estimated that the three worst-hit countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea need 5,000 overseas health workers to tackle the virus.
"Right now, I'm very much worried about where we will find those healthcare workers," Kim said, according to BBC, adding: "With the fear factor going out of control in so many places, I hope healthcare professionals will understand that when they took their oath to become a healthcare worker it was precisely for moments like this."
Anthony Banbury, head of the U.N. Ebola Emergency Response Mission, said according to Reuters: "Anything that will dissuade foreign trained personnel from coming here to West Africa and joining us on the frontline to fight the fight would be very, very unfortunate."
Sierra Leone’s Information Minister Alpha Kanu, called Australia’s move discriminatory and said: "It is not (going) after Ebola but rather it is ... against the 24 million citizens of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea," adding: "Certainly, it is not the right way to go," according to Reuters.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said that the move by some U.S. states of quarantining people arriving in the country could be an overreaction. She also urged Australia to rethink its travel ban.
“Anytime there's stigmatization, there's quarantine, there's exclusion of people, many of whom are just normal, then those of us who are fighting this epidemic, when we face that, we get very sad," Sirleaf said, according to Reuters.
The current Ebola outbreak, which is the worst on record, has so far killed nearly 5,000 people and has infected more than 10,000 people, mostly in West Africa
RE: Actually, the best rebuttal I have seen of this is from Chertoff’s WP opinion piece. He made the point that most illegal immigration over the border is handled by smugglers. Those smugglers are very unlikely to want to transport those who they suspect to be ill— it would ruin their very lucrative business.
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That’s a good argument, but still, the question remains, if the airlines REFUSE to fly anyone from say Liberia because they don’t have a visa, how are they going to even reach Mexico?
A link to this thread has been posted on the Ebola Surveillance Thread
I assume that someone could fly to Mexico and then cross the border into the US. In that case, wouldn’t it have to be Mexico that imposed the visa restrictions?
Mexico did not even allow a U.S. cruise ship to dock in Cozumel because a passenger had possibly been exposed to Ebola ( she was NOT ).
I don’t think they will allow anyone from West Africa to fly to their country.
The irony is this (if you ignore the smugglers ), MEXICO IS STRICTER and MORE RUTHLESS to ILLEGALS than the USA.
“Can the world just please grow the hell up. When did we become people who could not just face facts, as ugly as they may seem, and do the right things?!”
I’ll take Berkeley in the 60’s for 100, Alex.
Good on Australia!
Thanks for the ping!
Exactly. These dumbass excuses from the CDC and the administration are so asinine.
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