US urges Europe to boost travel checks to stop Ebola spread

The Trump administration is telling European nations to step up travel restrictions for people coming to the continent from Ebola-hit countries in Africa, hinting that failure to do so may result in increased US regulations on travel from Europe, including for the World Cup soccer tournament.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday called European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to convey the concerns and “to discuss US and European coordination and response efforts to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda,” the State Department said in a statement. “The department’s highest priority and focus remains protecting the health of the American people and preventing this Ebola outbreak from reaching our shores,” it said.

A State Department official was more blunt, saying the US “has stepped up” to confront the outbreak and “now the world must do more to step up as well”. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private call between Rubio and von der Leyen, said it’s time for action and that without it, transatlantic travel could be affected. The official said the US wants to see action that includes financial contributions to combat the disease and “commonsense restrictions on travel from the affected area”.

The World Cup tournament opens Thursday in Mexico and unfolds over nearly six weeks, with the US hosting most of the games.

The Trump administration has banned travellers who have been in one of the affected countries in the previous three weeks from entering the United States and is establishing quarantine procedures for affected American citizens returning home from those places. There are relatively few direct flights between Africa and the US per day but more than 300 direct daily flights between Europe and the United States. The US says it has contributed more than USD 200 million to efforts to end the outbreak in Congo and Uganda since it was first confirmed last month. The European Union announced earlier Tuesday that it was boosting its Ebola response funding by 16.5 million euros (USD 19 million) on top of 15 million euros (USD 17.3 million) related to the outbreak that it contributed to last month.

The European Union delegation in Washington had no immediate response to Rubio’s call with von der Leyen.         

Democrats assailed Rubio during congressional hearings last week about the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development and the impact that may have had on the Ebola response. Rubio insisted that early detection programmes have been rolled into health deals struck with African countries and that the US “response has been very quick”.