‘No politics in a pandemic’: PM says India travel ban not racist

Prime Minister Scott Morrison today held firm on his India flights ban despite a Coalition senator insisting stranded Australians should be assisted to come home.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison today held firm on his temporary ban on flights from India despite Nationals senator Matt Canavan breaking ranks insisting stranded Aussies should be assisted to come home.

Mr Morrison said accusations of racism against the government’s stand were unfair.

“This is the same accusation that was made when we closed the borders to mainland China. We need to continue to take decisions in the best health interest of Australia,” he told 2GB.

He also accused the opposition of politicising the decision.

Nationals senator Matt Canavan is critical of Mr Morrison’s stand over India.

“We haven’t agreed with all the steps made but there is no politics or ideology in a pandemic,” he said.

“I’m constantly taken aback by those who seek to inject it (sic).

“This is a virus, it does not care if you’re Labor or Liberal it will get in and cause death.”

But Queensland Nationals senator Matt Canavan lashed out at the government’s harsh policies making attempting to re-enter Australia from India a jailable offence.

The conservative tweeted this morning, “We should be helping Aussies in India return, not jailing them. Let’s fix our quarantine system rather than leave our fellow Australians stranded.”

Canavan joins the growing ranks of critics of the government’s harsh and unprecedented policies towards those seeking to return from India.

There are an estimated 9,000 Australian citizens stranded in India, which is experiencing a devastating wave of coronavirus infections. Flights home from India have been suspended until at least mid-May.

INDIA TRAVEL BAN NOT RACIST, SAYS PAYNE

Foreign Minister Marise Payne says the ban on Australians returning from India will only be temporary. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Australia‘s temporary ban on its own citizens returning home from India is “not in any way” racist even though the same rules were not applied to past COVID-19 hot spots says Foreign Minister Marise Payne.

India has become the epicentre of the world‘s worst coronavirus outbreak, with the rate of positive infection among Australians returning from the country going from about 10 per cent to 57 per cent in recent weeks.

In India more than 400,000 people are day are testing positive for COVID-19.

Ms Payne said medical advice based on this sharp increase in COVID-19 cases returning from India was the only reason behind the temporary travel ban, a breach of which risks jail time.

“Absolutely not in any way (is it racist),” she said.

“The decision which has been made under the Biosecurity Act on the basis of the advice of the Chief Medical Officer is a temporary pause on returns.

“What is most important is that it is temporary.”

A worker wearing a PPE suit takes a momentary break as people perform the last rites of patients who died of COVID-19 during a mass cremation held at a crematorium in New Delhi, India. Pictire: Anindito Mukherjee/Getty Images

A priest who works at a crematorium is seen amid burning funeral pyres of patients who died of COVID-19 in New Delhi. Picture: Anindito Mukherjee/Getty Images

Ms Payne said the high rate of COVID-19 infection among Australians returning from India was placing a “significant burden” on the health services in states and territories through the quarantine program.

“The burden that has placed on the health systems in the states and territories, including through particularly Howard Springs, is a very significant one,” she said.

“And the decision to place a temporary pause ... on returning travellers from India has been to enable our systems to deal with that, and then once we review that on May 15, we‘ll make further decisions.”

A priest lights a wooden stick as he prepares to perform the last rites of a patient who died of COVID-19 during a mass cremation in New Delhi, India. Picture: Anindito Mukherjee/Getty Images

Ms Payne said she recognised the “very, very difficult circumstances” occurring in India.

“For so many families. And indeed here in Australia, for Indian Australians who are so worried about their families overseas,” she said.

Australia previously closed its borders to China at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but maintained emergency repatriation flights - including from Wuhan where the virus was first detected - during the closure.

About 19,000 Australians have been returned from India since March 2020, but a further 8,000 are listed was wanting to come home.

On the first page of every Australian passport, there is a line on behalf of the Governor-General of the Commonwealth Australia requesting the bearer be allowed to “pass freely without let or hindrance and to afford him or her every assistance and protection of which he or she may stand in need”.

Burning pyres of the victims who died of COVID-19 coronavirus are pictured at an open air crematorium set up inside a defunct granite quarry on the outskirts of Bangalore, India. Picture: Manjunath Kiran / AFP

The Australian Human Rights Commission has released a statement raising “serious human rights concerns” about the travel ban on citizens returning from India and the criminal sanctions applied to any breaches.

“The Commission supports the continuation of aid to the Indian Government as it copes with the current COVID-19 crisis, but the Commission holds deep concerns about these extraordinary new restrictions on Australians returning to Australia from India,” the statement said.

“The need for such restrictions must be publicly justified. The Government must show that these measures are not discriminatory and the only suitable way of dealing with the threat to public health.”

In the statement the Commission said it was “approaching the Australian Government directly with its concerns”.

About eight flights were due to leave India for Australia in May, and the government has remained open to increasing the number once the temporary pause has ended.