Freedom of movement is a fundamental human right. He or she has the freedom to move to any location at any moment. Legal or epidemic issues sometimes halt people’s migration. Almost all big cities in many European countries are on the verge of upheaval. There is only one slogan: “No green passport, no problem.” All of this is due to the covid-19 epidemic. An unseen virus that not only halted the world’s economy but also restricted movement. Green passport introduced by many European countries to make situation normal. But the opposition posed some reservation on implementation of green health passport. Green passport is a technology that can track down people under supervision, which means they are under constant observation; as President Biden said that we have to protect vaccinated from unvaccinated. This research contributes to highlighting the green passport concept during the Corona pandemic. This research used articles from east and west publications from the year 2021. Antconc version 4.0 and Ant Tag contributed annotations to the articles. There were 10572 words in total in the corpus. The study uses Mautner’s (2016) Corpus-Linguistics technique to conduct corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis. This study combines Baker’s lexical category model of concordance with a Corpus-Linguistics approach. The keywords were taken with American reference corpus which were examined via the lens of CLA. The examination of corpus data revealed that western data was great in number against the eastern corpus. The keywords grouped into themes which enabled to get insight of the data. The result showed that maximum countries are in favour of green passport with little reservation. Almost all countries agreed that green passport is a key to open normal business in the world. But needed to create justice in accepting third world green health passport. All governments are making significant efforts to implement the green passport, regardless of the concerns the WHO. The study thus recomended to investigate more newspapers’ articles so that the result would be more authentic. It is important to find out the implication of green passport on people and society along with alternatives.
Green Passport or Covid Certificate
An immunity passport, or health pass or release certificate, is a document in both paper and digital format, attesting that its bearer has a degree of immunity to a contagious disease. Public certification is an action that governments can take to mitigate an epidemic. A digital document or paper allows the traveler to cross the border of another country. (Ib Khalil)
The EU digital covid certificate (EUDCC), commonly known as the green passport, was launched on July 1 by the European Union. The ticket allows tourists who have received one of the four covid-19 vaccinations approved by the European Medicine Agency to travel freely within Europe (EMA). The EMA has only recognised Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson. Other vaccines, such as covishield, covaxin, and Chinese vaccines sinovic and sputnik V, should be avoided. (Indian Express)
The first stage was the imposition of a quarantine requirement and the requirement that a negative RT-PCR test result is obtained before crossing the border. Following the discovery of the vaccine, various countries announced the removal of the test requirement and the quarantine requirement for anyone who had received a total vaccination dosage. The legal regulations, on the other hand, were enacted at the level of a single state rather than on the scale of international agreements. (Kubiczek, 2021) On March 17, 2021, the European Union launched the first step to harmonise legislation regarding international travel conditions. The European Commission (2021) announced that work on The Digital Green Certificate, often known as the Covid passport, has begun. It should be highlighted that the European Commission’s coordination of the project would enable the unification of legislation which will equal something highly significant in terms of ethics – the treatment of visitors (Kubiczek, 2020).
The conception and implementation of the Digital Green Certificate might be considered an international ICT project. Project management, particularly in information and communication technologies, is an integral part of today’s world since it has a societally recognised practical aspect (Morcov et al., 2020). Implementation is a critical step in enabling mobility, but it comes with many risks and uncertainties. The same may be said for other ICT implementation attempts in government (Rodrguez-Bolvar, 2014, p. IX).
According to the Associated Press (AP), a senior World Health Organization official stated that so-called “vaccine passports” for COVID-19 should not be utilised for foreign travel for various reasons, including ethical concerns over coronavirus vaccine availability. “Vaccination is simply not available enough over the world, and it is certainly not supplied on an equal basis,” Ryan (WHO official) stated.
Working on Green Passport
According to the European Commission (EC), a Digital COVID Certificate is digital proof that a person possesses either;
| 1. been vaccinated against COVID-19 |
| 2. received a negative test result or |
| 3. recovered from COVID-19 |
Key Features of Green Passport (EC)
- digital/ paper certificate
- With QR code
- Free of charge
- In national language and in English
- Safe and secure
- Valid in over the world
The BBC published an article listing the countries with green passports or planning to do so shortly. According to the BBC, China implemented a QR code system last year that divided people into distinct colours. People with a green code can move around freely; however, those with a yellow code may be asked to stay at home for seven days. Officials in the United States ruled out adopting mandatory government Covid vaccination passports in April 2021, citing the need to preserve residents’ privacy and rights. According to the article, Israel implemented a vaccine pass earlier this year. People must confirm either immunisation or recent exposure to the virus. The pass aided vaccination uptake, particularly among younger people. The French government has created a health ticket to grant access to restaurants, pubs, aircraft, and trains.
All 27 EU member states, as well as Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein, are implementing a vaccine “passport.” It is free to download or purchase a paper copy for citizens of these countries. Non-EU nationals living legally in member nations with the ability to travel to other member states are also eligible, according to the BBC.
The gist of the study was that the West would be the first to be vaccinated and obtain a green passport, followed by the developing countries, especially in the east. They had no choice but to embrace the West’s order, a green passport. Finally, it is clear that there is green passport was only good solution to bring normalcy in the world for save and sound traveling. Green passport is necessary for the people who are traveling abroad especially western countries, because no green passport no traveling, that’s it. Green passport is a way to eradicate abnormality created by the coronavirus. Green passport paved way to normal life and normal business.
