The federal government has announced that it has suspended the passports of more than 2,000 in-bound travellers for violating the COVID protocol.

This was announced on Monday by the national incident manager of the presidential steering committee (PSC), Mukhtar Mohammed at a media briefing held in Abuja.

According to Mohammed, surveillance systems have been improved at airports, seaports, and land borders, and travellers found to have violated the protocol have been “penalised”.

“Our efforts, in terms of restrictions, have shown that compliance with these measures is actually very low. However, our efforts on compliance at point of entry has been shown to be quite appreciable,” he said.

“Since the anticipation of the third wave, we have strengthened our surveillance system in the airports, seaports, as well as land borders. We have identified certain countries that are very high risk, and provided some level of restriction for passengers arriving from these countries.

“We have included the provision of quarantine for passengers who arrived from restricted countries, and people who evaded these protocols have been penalised by publishing their names, as well as by suspending their passports for one year.

“Let me assure you that so far, we have published the list of over 2,000 people who evaded quarantine in our health facilities. And we have gone ahead to ensure that their passports are suspended. So, for every action, certainly, there are consequences.”

Passengers arriving from high-risk countries such as India, South Africa, Brazil and Turkey are expected to embark on 14-day quarantine in government-approved facilities.

The federal government in May had released the names of some passengers who were accused of violating the COVID protocol.