Cameroon woman begs Scott Morrison to help her family stranded in Africa

A woman has thrown herself at the feet of Prime Minister Scott Morrison in tears and prayed for him to help her family in Africa.

A woman has thrown herself at the feet of Prime Minister Scott Morrison in tears and prayed for him to help her family in Africa.

Shortly after Mr Morrison finished a press conference in Rockhampton, Queensland, the woman got down on the ground and begged him to assist her family who are stranded in Cameroon amid a genocide.

A woman in Rockhampton has thrown herself at Prime Minister Scott Morrison's feet and prayed for him to help her family in Africa. Source: 7 News/Twitter

The woman, who was from Cameroon, was crying as she explained the situation to Mr Morrison, who bent down to console her.

After speaking for a moment the woman was introduced to local Capricornia MP Michelle Landry for further help.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Capricornia MP Michelle Landry all bent down to help the crying woman. Source: 7 News / Twitter

Speaking in Rockhampton earlier, Mr Morrison said he did not agree with the scathing assessment by cricketer Michael Slater that the PM had “blood on his hands” by closing Australia’s border to India.

“No, I don’t agree with him,” Mr Morrison said.

“I thank all of those who are in this difficult situation for their patience and their understanding.

“I am working to bring them home safely.”

A COVID-19 patient breathes with the help of oxygen. Picture: Sajjad HUSSAIN / AFP

Mr Morrison said the “great risk” of not temporarily pausing travel from India was that the rate of COVID-19 cases would increase further and “jeopardise our medium to long term abilities to bring more Australians home”.

“This is a decision that has been taken both in the interests of keeping Australians safe now but also to put us in a stronger position to safely bring more Australians home,” he said.

“I respectfully disagree with the critics on this one but the buck stops here when it comes to these decisions and I am going to take decisions that I believe will protect Australia from a third wave and help me to be able to reach out and bring more Australians safely home from places where they are in difficult situations.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison visits Beef Australia in Rockhampton

Mr Morrison said the orders under the Biosecurity Act making it a criminal offence to travel to Australia from India would be “exercised proportionately and responsibly”.

“Those sanctions have been in place now for 14 months and we haven’t seen the extremes of those sanctions being required,” he said.

“I think it would be remote, a very remote circumstances that would see them imposed in these circumstances but they’re imposed seriously because we need to prevent people coming who have been in India during the last 14 days because the risk of infection that they’re bringing is very high.

“That is the medical advice.”

A family member performs the last rites for his loved one, who died of COVID-19 in New Delhi. Picture: Tauseef Mustafa/AFP

Mr Morrison said if everyone co-operated with the pause on travel until May 15 then Australia would be in a “stronger position” to start repatriation flights again.

“We are already seeing in Howard Springs the number of confirmed cases starting to come off,” he said.

“That is what we want to see over the next couple of weeks.

“In the last flights we saw come in, we had one in eight of those who arrived had COVID.

“The challenge we are facing here is not just the rampant spread of the pandemic in India, but it has been the accelerated rate of where we have seen infection of people coming from India.”

Mr Morrison said the government would “constantly review” the travel ban on India.

“It is in place until 15 May, that is what the biosecurity order signed by the Health Minister is,” he said.

“We need that time.”