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New travel regulations for passengers flying in and out of Dubai

New travel regulations for passengers flying in and out of Dubai. (Shutterstock)
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Updated 09 July 2020
Rebecca Proctor
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New travel regulations for passengers flying in and out of Dubai

  • UAE residents and citizens can now travel to any destination as long as health and safety measures are met
  • Dubai visa-holders are not required by the emirate’s government or airlines to be tested for COVID-19 before flying
Updated 09 July 2020
Rebecca Proctor

DUBAI: Summer travel in the UAE is set to soar as federal restrictions are eased, students finish school, and tourists return to Dubai.
However, Dubai has its own crisis authority and immigration service, and different rules from the rest of the country.
Travel regulations were updated last Friday by the National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Management Authority (NCEMA), the Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship (ICA), and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
UAE residents and citizens can now travel to any destination as long as health and safety measures are met.
Before booking flights, Dubai residents traveling abroad this summer are being advised to apply to Dubai’s immigration service, the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA), for permission to leave, and also return to, the country.

 


Passengers flying with the Emirates airline will need to obtain a GDRFA number to book their outbound flight. Dubai visa-holders are not required by the emirate’s government or airlines to be tested for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) before flying.
This is the main difference between Dubai and federal rules, outlined by the NCEMA.
People living in Dubai but working on a visa from another emirate, must follow federal rules requiring them to gain travel approval via the Tawajudi system. UAE nationals, on the other hand, should register with the Tawajudi system to allow communication with them while traveling.
Residents returning to Dubai will be tested for COVID-19 at the airport and will need to stay at home until receiving their results, which could take up to three days. If results test positive, individuals must self-isolate for 14 days.
Tourists visiting Dubai must take a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) nasal swab test up to four days before flying at a hospital or private clinic in their home country and carry test-result documentation with them to the city.
Travelers with valid, recognized tests, and showing no COVID-19 symptoms, will not be tested in Dubai or quarantined. Those unable to be tested before traveling will be screened by medics on arrival at Dubai airport. Children will also need to be tested in order to enter Dubai.
Residents of Abu Dhabi and the northern emirates must apply to the federal government’s ICA/Tawajudi system for permission to travel abroad and test negative for COVID-19 before leaving Abu Dhabi or other UAE airports. Passengers who fail to present a valid negative COVID-19 test, taken within 72 hours of flying, will not be permitted to board their aircraft.
Once in their home country or destination, travelers will need to be tested before returning to the UAE, this requirement being the major difference from Dubai’s system which does not demand it.
When returning, passengers must show their negative test before boarding their plane back to the UAE and on arrival must quarantine for 14 days as a precaution, even if the test was negative.

 

First responders enter devastated Aleppo neighborhood after days of deadly fighting

Updated 12 January 2026
AP
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First responders enter devastated Aleppo neighborhood after days of deadly fighting

  • The US-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Daesh group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s national army
Updated 12 January 2026
AP

ALEPPO, Syria: First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.
The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.
The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.
The US-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Daesh group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”
The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.
Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid Al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.
The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.
On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.
Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.
“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”
Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.
Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.
“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.
 

 

Topics: Fall of Assad Syria Syria Kurds

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