Coronavirus: Confusion over Spain rules for travellers from UK

People on a sunny day at the beach in Malaga in JuneEPA

Conflicting statements by Spanish officials have sparked confusion over the country's rules for UK travellers.

Spanish officials said on Monday that travellers from the UK would not have to quarantine on arrival from Sunday.

But Spain's foreign affairs minister then said the country may impose a two-week quarantine on Britons, if the UK maintains its current travel rules.

These state that anyone returning to - or entering - the UK must self-isolate for two weeks.

The UK Foreign Office is also still warning against all but essential international travel.

The mixed messages began after Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez announced over the weekend that Spain's borders would reopen to travellers from all EU countries on Sunday 21 June - with the exception of Portugal.

And on Monday evening, a Spanish government spokeswoman confirmed that the UK would be added to the list of countries whose citizens could travel to Spain.

But later, Spain's foreign affairs minister Arancha González Laya appeared to give new guidance on the travel rules for UK travellers arriving in Spain.

The new stance was apparently prompted by the UK government's previous decision to impose a two-week quarantine period on most overseas travellers.

The minister told the BBC's HARDtalk programme: "We will be checking what the UK will be doing and we will be in dialogue with the UK to see whether or not we should be introducing reciprocity as they have different measures than the rest of the EU."

She added the situation was "fluid" and said officials would like to "properly engage in a dialogue with the UK authorities to make sure that we both take the message that best corresponds to the health situation, which today is a little bit better in Spain than it is in the UK".

"Hopefully by the time we open our borders, the UK would have moved forward also," she said.

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