COVID-19: Aussies stranded overseas plead for help to get home

They are desperate to come home but they keep facing flight cancellations. Now with new caps imposed on incoming flights, these desperate Aussies, are losing their jobs and homes, some even have cancer, and are begging for help.

Rebecca Taylor is going to miss her sister’s wedding. Lauren Chan missed her Nona’s funeral and Jennifer Jones is now homeless, jobless and stuck in London with cervical cancer.

These are the stories of stranded Aussies who are desperate to come home, a quest that is now more complex than ever after the introduction of new rules requiring Australians be tested for COVID-19 72 hours or less prior to departure, and a halving of the caps on flights back to Australia.

Rebecca Taylor had planned months in advance to make it to her little sister’s Sydney wedding on February 6.

Based in the UK for the past three years, the speech therapist factored in COVID-19 and 14 days hotel quarantine, but her flight has repeatedly been cancelled.

“I had an Etihad flight leaving Sunday the 17th, and that flight had been cancelled and rescheduled before, and it was cutting it fine.

“We are very close, we talk every few days, I’ve only got one sibling and she’s it, we’ve both just had a really big cry on the phone,” the 33-year old said.

Rebecca Taylor (left) will miss her little sister Emma's Sydney wedding because she is stranded in the UK. Picture: Supplied

The experience for many Aussies trying to get home has been that booked flights are cancelled at the last minute.

“I had other flights booked through British Airways but they changed and now they don’t have any flights until March. I’ve been planning this for six months trying to get back in time for it,” Taylor said.

“I’ve booked three different flights and this is my third cancellation after two prior changes. I thought I would scrape through until Friday came along with the caps (the latest halving of flights to Australia). It was already capped. It feels like playing Russian roulette.”

Taylor believes booked seats are cancelled at the last minute and sold to the highest bidder.

“My flight is going ahead but because I bought this ticket a while ago, at a much better price. I got it for £1200 ($2009) return but now it is £4000 ($7031) for the same flight, so I’ve been flicked off, I get the refund but I think they resell the seat.”

UK-based Rebecca Taylor (right) will miss her sister’s wedding due to flight cancellations. Picture: Supplied

The issue has been compounded by the decision to reduce arrivals from January 15 to February 15 to contain the emergence of the highly contagious UK and South African mutations in Australia.

For NSW, the weekly cap is now 1505 arrivals. Victoria has no change and arrivals will remain at 1120 per week. For Western Australia, the weekly cap is 512, Queensland 650 arrivals and South Australia remains at 490 per week.

Qantas said its only international flights, apart from some to New Zealand, are repatriation flights done on behalf of the Federal government. So far it has conducted 150 since the start of the pandemic. Additional flights are schedule to operate in January.

There have been only six from London since the end of October.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said since March 38,800 Australians had returned on over 500 flights including over 12,500 people on 90 Government facilitated flights.

“In the six weeks prior to Christmas, DFAT made over 50,000 offers of places on flights to Australians registered overseas,” the spokesman said.

“Numbers on all facilitated flights are restricted by caps as applied by states and territories and agreed by national cabinet.”

Jennifer Jones and her partner Sean Huggins arrived in the UK in 2019, but as soon as COVID-19 hit, they tried to get home. Then Jones, a registered nurse, was diagnosed with cervical cancer in September.

“We had to delay coming home because I needed treatment here and we decided to wait until January in the hopes things would have calmed down and our flight would be guaranteed.

“Looking at flights it’s incredibly difficult, you’re looking at $3000 to $6000 for a one-way ticket,” the 33-year-old said.

Jennifer Jones, who has cervical cancer, and her partner Sean Huggins are stranded in the UK. Picture: Supplied

The couple had their January 25 Qatar flight London to Perth cancelled last Wednesday.

“I’m now unemployed, I finished my job last week because we had our flights. We were told they were confirmed, you quit your job, we’re moving out of our flat next week, so we’ll be homeless too and then it gets cancelled. We are in a pretty bad situation.”

Her medical care has been transferred to a Perth oncologist.

“The stressful part is I have my last oncology appointment on Friday and I had transferred to the oncologist in Perth and I am due to have appointments with him. I need strict follow-ups so it doesn’t come back and now I’m in the situation that if I can’t get home, getting treatment in the UK NHS (is something) you can’t get it right now,” Jones said.

“The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade repatriation flights, by the time you get to them they are all gone.

“The Australian Government has truly left us high and dry, it’s disgusting. So many have been let down and have no support from the government and having to pay extortionate amounts for flights and paying for quarantine, a lot of people don’t have that money. We feel defeated and abandoned. Having an Australian passport is meant to be an amazing thing but right now it honestly feels like a curse.”

Lauren Chan, 30, has been working in London for two years and has been trying to fly home to Australia since her work visa ran out last October.

Lauren Chan missed her Nona's funeral in November and is still trying to get home from the UK. Picture: Supplied

She tried to make it home for her late Nona’s funeral in November and has had four flights cancelled.

“My Nona passed away in November and I would have been able to spend time with her and go to her funeral,” she said.

“I booked a business flight to Melbourne a day before my visa ended and it was cancelled, then I booked on December 4 and that was cancelled, then I booked business class with British airways to Sydney on December 28 and that was cancelled, then January 11 and that was cancelled.

“I’m now booked on February 5 on Qatar,” she said.

Chan had also given up her rental property before her visa expired and now is surfing between accommodations and relying in temporary visa extensions.

“I’ve had four flights cancelled in three months and I am in this limbo. I can’t get home faster and I can’t pay any more. I’d happily stay at Howard Springs in the Northern Territory.”

Caleb Turland is working on the front line in Manchester in the UK as a COVID-19 tester. He has booked a flight with Singapore airlines to come home in March but is not confident because Singapore is now not allowing layovers.

Caleb Turland is stranded in Manchester. Picture: Supplied

Turland, 26, has written to Scott Morrison urging more support for Aussies to come home.

“I support tough restrictions including hotel quarantine. I would be devastated if I were the cause of another outbreak,” he wrote.

But the limited flights through Qantas has led to Aussies scrambling on to other airlines which are charging enormous prices.

“Except for a very limited number of Qantas flights all returning Australians are reliant of foreign airlines. This has led to a huge amount of difficulty including oversold flights with people bumped at the last minute, flights sold that are very unlikely to operate, not being allowed entry for a layover and perhaps most difficult, the enormously inflated prices. Finding a way home is not to join a queue but to enter a lottery,” he wrote.

He told The Saturday Telegraph he hoped the Australian Government would do more to help those stranded get home.

“I’m concerned so much of the responsibility of getting Australians back home has fallen to these foreign airlines who are not accountable to Australia so if they can only sell so many seats on a flight they are going to increase the prices.

“The number of people who have been bumped off, or had flights cancelled. I think Australia should start having conversations with our airlines, Qantas, Virgin, even the air force to organise flights home for Australians.

“They have done this in a limited capacity with flights returning to Darwin, but I think that could be massively ramped up because at the moment we are at the mercy of foreign airlines,” Turland said.