Coronavirus: Australians left stranded due to flight cap

An Aussie couple left homeless and jobless in New Zealand were left with “no choice” but to fly to the UK to wait out their return home.

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When Australians Andy McIver and his wife Jess were left homeless and jobless in New Zealand, they found themselves unable to make the three hour trip home to Brisbane, instead having “no other option” than to move 27 hours across the world.

They’re two of an estimated 25,000 Australians registered overseas who are trying to return home.

Since March, international arrivals have been limited to repatriating Australians, but most recently only 4000 people have been able to land each week as the country tried to stem the spread of coronavirus.

While that flight cap was this week increased to 6000 people, Mr McIver says it was not enough, and that Prime Minister Scott Morrison should try harder to protect people like him.

“Out of sight, out of mind should not be his attitude to the people who put him in charge,” Mr McIver said.

“It’s his job to protect all Australians, wherever they are in the world.”

Andy McIver and his wife Jess.

Mr and Mrs McIver had been living, working and studying in Southland, New Zealand, for about a year when the pandemic hit.

When Mr Morrison advised expats back in March to stay put if they were able, Mr McIver listened. Once case numbers subsided on both sides of the Tasman, the McIvers started the process to move back to Brisbane, including packing a shipping container and moving two dogs and a car.

They gave their notice at work and on their rental home on July 7, and booked a flight to Brisbane for August 27, but within those seven weeks, Victoria’s second wave hit.

“The flight cap was put in place and we were bumped off our confirmed flight home for a flight six weeks later in mid-October,” Mr McIver said.

“We were stranded, homeless and without anything.”

Andy McIver and his wife Jess.

The pair could see only one option: booking a flight to the United Kingdom.

“The alternative was two months of hotel accommodation, which would have caused incredible mental strain of not having control of our future,” Mr McIver said.

They booked a flight to London on August 18, and four days later were self-isolating in a flat in West Sussex.

“We have no idea when we will be able to return (to Australia). We are not willing to pay $20,000 to book business class flights and then potentially find out the next day that the cap is lifted and airlines will be able to afford to fly again with economy passengers,” Mr McIver said.

“The government says we’ll have you home by Christmas, but from where I’m sitting the government has no sense of reality.

“It is insane, that two Australians could more easily fly to the other side of the world than a three-hour flight to Brisbane.

“The UK let us in without question, but the Australian government didn’t care what happened to us.”

INCREASE TO NUMBER OF STRANDED AUSTRALIANS RETURNING HOME

Australians stranded overseas amid the pandemic travel restrictions could be handed a lifeline after the states were asked to increase the numbers of returning travellers from 4000 to 6000 a week.

NSW will take the bulk of those flying home with almost half heading into quarantine here but none being directed to locked-down Victoria.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said NSW would agree to take the extra arrivals if other states stepped up and also took their share.

Stranded Australian traveller Natascha Rieger and her son James who are in Bamberg, Germany.

She said Prime Minister Scott Morrison “asked for NSW to take on an extra 500 travellers every week, which would mean that our daily cap would go from 350 to 420.”

“If the other states agree to up their numbers, we will then also accommodate that,” she said.

“So that would mean that Queensland and Western Australia would go from about 500 a week to 1000 a week, it would still only be about a third of what NSW is doing, but it certainly means they would be sharing the load more.”

There are around 35,000 Aussies registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade overseas and more than 26,000 of those have said they want to come home. The government is particularly concerned about 3500 of those who are considered vulnerable.

The government has already stepped in to help Australians with medical conditions, students running out of money and heavily pregnant women with repatriation assistance.

Christos Lagoumitzis, 45, from La Perouse travelled to Athens, Greece in January to care for his elderly parents and has not been able to get home since.

Mr Lagoumitzis has been trying to ­sec­ure a flight since March and said the government “should be doing more” to rescue Australians trapped overseas.

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“As soon as ScoMo said to come back I booked a flight for July 14, several months ahead,” Mr Lagoumitzis said.

“I was then rescheduled for August 31, before the airline then deleted the flight and rescheduled for October 26. I’m lucky because I get to stay with my parents for now, but it feels like my life’s on hold ­because I imagined I’d be home in days, not months. I can’t work over here, it’s been very stressful.”

Mr Morrison last month wrote a personal letter to Australians stranded abroad that appears to blame them for their struggles to return home.

He said the unique nature of the crisis is “why I asked Australians to return home on March 17, 2020”.

His advice was followed by repeated warnings from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

“If you decide to ­return to Australia, do so as soon as possible. Commercial options may become less available,” DFAT said.

Sydneysider Christos Lagoumitzis went to Greece in January to care for his elderly parents.

Mr Morrison’s letter prompted an angry response. This week Labor leader Anthony Albanese called for the PM’s official jet to be used to bring people home.

“The RAAF VIP fleet is largely sitting idle,” he said.

However, there are still thousands of empty seats on commercial flights coming into Australia every week.

Deputy Prime Minister ­Michael McCormack said yesterday: “It’s been a very difficult situation for some trying to get home and we acknowledge that.

“I want to make sure that we do get more international flights into this country. I want to make sure that more Australians can return home. Every capital city airport has the cap­acity to do just that.”

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The announcement, which will be voted on by the National Cabinet tomorrow, was welcomed by Aussies overseas, including Australian resident Natascha Rieger, 30, and her seven-year-old son James who have been stranded in Bamberg, Germany since June.

German-born Ms Rieger is engaged to a Riverina farmer and lived there with him for several years before returning to Germany in January with James to finish her studies.

Ms Rieger’s final exams made it “impossible” to come home when Australians were called back, and a flight she booked on June 7 for August 30 was cancelled just three days prior. She was worried a second flight home scheduled with Qatar Airways for October 23 would also be cancelled.

“My son gets really sad sometimes, he misses his dad,” she said.

I WAS LOOKING AFTER RHINOS IN AFRICA, NOW BRING ME HOME

Brooke Saward has spent much of her young life travelling the world and while that was once a blessing, in the age of COVID-19 it has become a curse.

She is one of at least 25,000 Australians stranded overseas amid the pandemic travel restrictions.

Ironically, the so-called ”influencer’’ has built a strong social media following on the back of her travels but she has very little influence when it comes to finding a flight back home from South Africa.
Ms Saward, from Tasmania, said she has been left in a state of purgatory as she fast approaches her visa expiry date.

She moved to South Africa in November last year to spend time in her partner’s home country while he applied for a partner visa in Australia.

Blogger Brooke Saward.

Her visa required her to leave and re-enter that country every three months.

She blames her time in the wilderness chasing rhinos on the fact she was unable to keep up to date with travel warnings about the COVID-19 situation.

“I came back to South Africa on March 6 and there was not much coverage to suggest coronavirus was a big problem outside of Wuhan,” she said.

“I went on a rhino conservation trip two days later and was out of reception for about 10 days. Only twice did I connect to Wi-Fi to read what was happening in the outside world.’’

She claims she has kept a keen eye on repatriation flights and insists there have only been two bound for Australia.

She admitted she may have had a chance to return earlier but circumstances prevented her from doing so.

“I think it’s a very comfortable position from within the borders of Australia to say, ‘well, you had your chance to get home’.

“It wasn’t as easy as just getting on a flight. I had a lease, I had so many obligations. I had a whole life here I needed to pack up.’’