Record numbers of Australians apply to Border Force to leave long-term
About 15,000 Australians applied to leave the country for less locked-down locations last month — but only two-thirds were allowed out.
Record numbers of Australians are applying to get out of the country for more than three months at a stretch but increasingly they are also seeing their applications to leave knocked back, according to Australian Border Force figures.
According to the agency’s most recent Monthly Travel Exemptions Processing Report, 37,979 applications were received to leave the country in August — with about 15,000 of those being from Australians wishing to leave the country for three months or more.
In total, 12,347 of those applications — nearly half — were rejected, with 4,460 of the applications to leave for less than three months also knocked back.
August’s total applications to leave were also nearly double those received at the start of the year.
In January, 20,976 outbound applications were received by Border Force, and the number has steadily increased nearly every month.
The figures suggest that while the nation has performed enviably at keeping coronavirus cases and deaths low, increasing numbers of Australians are looking to move to other nations that are moving to put the pandemic behind them and operate openly with minimal restriction on daily life, commerce and travel.
“There are literally tens of thousands of people out there on social media and elsewhere saying we’re done, we don’t need this anymore,” said LibertyWorks president Andrew Cooper, who led an unsuccessful court challenge to Australia’s draconian border restrictions.
“There’s definitely that feeling out there — people saying I’m done,” he added.
Australia is thought to be one of a handful of nations including North Korea that require its citizens to apply for permission to leave the country.
The numbers also come at a time when NSW residents are among the most restricted in their ability to travel inside or outside the country.
Aside from 5km travel limits for most people in the state, virtually every state and territory has also thrown up high bureaucratic barriers to keep people from NSW out except under very limited circumstance.
While Queensland’s border has been the focus of intense scrutiny for stranding compassionate cases, and even Australian Diggers coming home from Afghanistan, while allowing footballers and their wives and girlfriends in, virtually every other jurisdiction has similar rules in place to keep NSW people out.
Victoria has thousands of its own residents stranded in NSW and has only just begun to allow 200 of them stranded in low-risk border areas to come across the border and quarantine.
The state could not provide figures on the numbers of NSW residents who had applied to leave for Victoria.
South Australia has similarly strict rules against NSW visitors.
A spokesman from the state’s health department said that applications were taken from people fleeing domestic violence, relocating for work or seeking compassionate leave to visit a dying relative, but could not provide numbers or timelines, saying only that they were worked through “on a case-by-case basis.”
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Originally published as Record numbers of Australians apply to Border Force to leave long-term
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