Your business trip. Essential trip or not?

Travel to red zones is prohibited but what if your job requires you to travel to a red zone or country anyway? Is a business trip an essential trip or not? And how to prove it? We consulted the airport police at Brussels Airport and had a lengthy telephone conversation with the call centre of info-coronavirus.be and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The information on the subject is confusing and the answer is far from unequivocal but we would still like to try and clarify this difficult issue.

EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULE

Within Europe

Europe accepts a number of exceptions. Employees belonging to one of the below categories are allowed to travel to red zones within Europe, the Schengen zone and the United Kingdom. Naturally they must comply with the measures imposed by the authorities at their destination (e.g. testing or quarantine). Travellers returning to Belgium from a red zone must submit to a test and quarantine for 14 days upon their arrival. They must also fill out the Passenger Locator Form.

The following exceptions apply:

• Health workers, researchers in the field of public health and elderly care professionals in the exercise of their function;

• Cross-border workers;

• Seasonal workers in agriculture;

• Transport personnel responsible for goods transport and other transport personnel, in so far as necessary in the exercise of their duties;

• Diplomats, personnel of international organisations and persons invited by international organisations whose physical presence is required for the proper functioning of said organisations, military personnel and humanitarian aid workers and civil protection personnel in the exercise of their duties;

• Passengers in transit;

• Passengers travelling for urgent family reasons;

• Maritime personnel in the exercise of their duties;

• Individuals in need of international protection or travelling for other humanitarian reasons, in compliance with the principle of non-refoulement;

• Subjects of third countries travelling for the purpose of study;

• Highly skilled and low-skilled workers from third countries, in the exercise of their duties, if their work is an economic necessity or cannot be postponed or carried out abroad

• Foreign travel within the scope of professional activities, including commuter traffic;

• Belgian or foreign nationals travelling to their main residence abroad;

• Travel within the scope of the execution of notarial deeds (if necessary and if this can’t be done digitally);

Info-coronavirus.be stated that the mandatory quarantine and test upon returning to Belgium does not apply to the above exceptions. In the telephone conversation with Foreign Affairs this was contradicted and we received confirmation that quarantine and testing is in fact compulsory for everyone returning from a red zone, exception or not. We comply with the strictest regulations so we are assuming that this is indeed compulsory. The sentence highlighted in green in particular leaves plenty of room for interpretation. The official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was surprised by the wording on info-coronavirus.be and admitted that this might cause a lot of confusion. He said that Foreign Affairs implements much stricter standards and that this sentence does not mean that matters are left to your own discretion. 

Outside Europe

• There is also a list of exceptions - albeit a slightly shorter one - for travel to destinations outside Europe, the Schengen zone and the United Kingdom (entirely red zone at the moment). 

• Health workers, researchers in the field of public health and elderly care professionals in the exercise of their function;

• Cross-border workers;

• Seasonal workers in agriculture;

• Transport personnel responsible for goods transport and other transport personnel, in so far as necessary in the exercise of their duties;

• Diplomats, personnel of international organisations and persons invited by international organisations whose physical presence is required for the proper functioning of said organisations, military personnel and humanitarian aid workers and civil protection personnel in the exercise of their duties;

• Passengers in transit;

• Passengers travelling for urgent family reasons;

• Maritime personnel in the exercise of their duties;

• Individuals in need of international protection or travelling for other humanitarian reasons, in compliance with the principle of non-refoulement;

• Subjects of third countries travelling for the purpose of study;

• Highly skilled and low-skilled workers from third countries, in the exercise of their duties, if their work is an economic necessity or cannot be postponed or carried out abroad;

HOW TO PROVE YOU ARE MAKING AN ESSENTIAL TRIP?

Travellers must always be able to justify their trips for essential work with reasonable proof such as an employment contract, legally binding documents, ... In any case you must be able to show that the work:

• is economically necessary

• cannot be postponed

• cannot be carried out by someone else on site

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs advised us to provide sufficient proof. For instance, every business traveller is advised to obtain a certificate both from their Belgian employer and the business unit or foreign business partner demonstrating the necessity of the trip.

HOW TO AVOID PROBLEMS AT THE AIRPORT​​​​​​​

You need to fly and you want to avoid unpleasant surprises? Then it’s best to submit a file in advance to the airport police at Brussels Zaventem. Email your request with all supporting documents to Brunat.immi@police.belgium.eu. If they confirm you can go on your essential trip then you can produce this authorisation in case of doubt.

The airport police of Brussels Airport emphasised that authorisation on their part only allows travellers to leave the country. Their decision has no bearing on any restrictions other countries may impose on travellers from Belgium. They informed us that their current response time is somewhere between 24 hrs and several days.

SOME CONCRETE EXAMPLES

Below we’ve outlined two cases that we presented to info-coronavirus.be, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the airport police.

Meeting abroad

You are the CEO of a Belgium-based company and you want to organise an important meeting with a customer abroad. Is this possible?

• If the destination is green or orange then this is possible, subject to compliance with all recommendations and possible security measures.

• If the destination is red there is little chance an exception will be granted. Meetings are considered non-essential and can also take place online, for instance.

Repairing machines abroad

A technician of a Belgium-based company has to carry out urgent repairs at a foreign customer’s place of business. Is this possible?

• If the destination is green or orange then this is possible, subject to compliance with all recommendations and possible security measures.

• If the destination is red you can apply for an exception, even for destinations outside Europe. The economic necessity, the urgency and the fact that the Belgian technician is irreplaceable must be confirmed both by his Belgian employer and the foreign partner.

DISCLAIMER

During our survey we noticed that many things are still unclear, also to the competent authorities. Sometimes they even contradicted each other. No rights can be derived from the information we have shared here. For this purpose please contact the competent authorities themselves.

https://www.info-coronavirus.be/en/ or 0800 14 689

https://diplomatie.belgium.be/en or 02 501 40 00

https://www.politie.be/5998/nl/contact/diensten/luchtvaartpolitie-brussels-aiport or 02 709 66 66 (our call was forwarded to the immigration service)