Desperate to spend Christmas at home, 23-year-old Gold Coaster Madelaine Ryan says the caps on international arrivals is 'insane'
A last-minute offer of a flight home offered to stranded Gold Coaster Madelaine in Scotland filled up in 30 minutes.
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DESPERATE to be home for Christmas, 23-year-old Gold Coaster Madelaine Ryan says waiting for an offer of a flight home from Scotland is “unnerving”.
Last week she was given just 24 hours to get to London from rural Scotland to have a COVID test before flying out the next day.
She was offered the flight at 8am, but when she went to book 30 minutes later, the Qantas website had an error notice.
“The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) sent an email to say it was a Qantas website error and to keep trying to link," she said.
“But my mum called Qantas and they said it was because the flight was full.
"Other people were offered the flight a week or two ago, so I am wondering if there were last-minute cancellations or spaces they could fill, seemed weird to offer the flight two days before."
Ms Ryan said she wasn't informed on future flights, but has seen some for November 2 and she's desperate to get on one.
"It just seems insane that they still aren't increasing the caps on arrivals into other Australian cities.
"It feels like a lottery and an anxious waiting game, I constantly try to stay positive and grateful for what I have but it's so unnerving not knowing when I'll be able to get home.
"I can only imagine those in worse conditions with ill family members or other difficult circumstances, or those in countries that these flights aren't leaving from.
"I think there still needs to be pressure on the government to raise the caps in order to make a real difference."
Ms Ryan is one of nearly 30,000 Aussies registered with DFAT who are desperate to have caps on arrivals scrapped. She’s been stuck overseas since July and has no income or visa.
Gold Coaster Emma Wood was stuck in Spain for three months before arriving home nearly two weeks. Qatar airlines cancelled her October 25 flight to Sydney, but in the same breath offered her an earlier flight on October 21 to Brisbane.
"I'm not sure why Qatar called me as I never asked for any priority consideration. The woman on the phone gave me many options of different flights I could choose, including for Saturday, the day after she called," she said.
"When I requested that my destination be changed to Brisbane it wasn't a problem in the slightest. It all seemed a bit too good to be true."
"Like many other people, I've been offered an upgrade for the first leg of my trip, Barcelona to Doha. However it would cost 750 pounds and I don't think it's worth it.
"I called Qatar to see if my refusing the upgrade would have any repercussions and they said it wouldn't, it's just standard procedure to offer an upgrade."
Broadbeach veteran Ryan Hodson, whose been surviving on snakes in the Philippines, had a meeting with the Australian Embassy in Manila on Friday regarding an emergency passport.
“And I have been approved a plane ticket to Cairns on November 22. There’s been loads of paper work and negotiation. I hope it gets finalised.”
Last week National Cabinet lifted international weekly passenger caps from 6000 to 6290 and flagged it would look to develop a plan for alternative arrangements to hotel quarantine.
Western Australia accepted an extra 140 people a week, and Queensland an extra 150 – this is on top of the 500 people a fortnight being flown to Darwin on repatriation flights from London, India and Johannesburg.
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MAIN Beach mother Sherri Martin is desperate to get her 23-year-old daughter home from Scotland, since her visa has expired and she has no source of income.
“She has had three flights postponed and the Qatar flight I bought was supposed to arrive home last Wednesday but the flight was cancelled the Friday before,” Ms Martin said.
“Madelaine’s visa has run out and she’s only surviving by working for her board and keep at a yoga retreat in the Scottish highlands, but that closes over winter.”
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Madelaine Ryan, a former AB Paterson student who recently completed a psychology degree at Griffith University, left the Gold Coast in October and had paid for a ticket home before she left the country. But by the time July rolled around she was stuck in Scotland with no friends or family and no idea when she would make it home.
The overseas traveller is one of an estimated 23,000 Australian citizens stuck overseas because of caps on the number of international arrivals allowed into the country.
Earlier this week Elanora mother Sally Wood pleaded with Queensland’s Premier to raise the state’s limit from 500 to 5000 so her homeless and jobless daughter Emma could fly home from Spain.
The Federal Government has caps to limit arrivals into Australia to about 4000 a week.
It is understood that while states and territories can voluntarily increase how many returned Australians they take into hotel quarantine, most are unlikely to do so.
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Ms Martin said she had contacted government ministers, but federal and state politicians were blaming each other for the cap on citizens allowed home.
“There’s just got to be a better way. Why can’t they organise a plane full of people and just bring them back. We’re all prepared to pay for that flight. We’re not asking for a free ride,” she said.
“And I know there’s so many people that have been horrendously affected by border closures and limits on flights home, but I can’t understand why our governments just can’t work together to get Australians home.”
But according to the Queensland Government, its hands are tied because the caps are negotiated at national cabinet. It also blamed a lack of suitable hotel accommodation to house an increased number of international arrivals.
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“In addition to international arrivals, currently in Queensland anyone who has been in Victoria, NSW or the Australian Capital Territory must also go into mandatory hotel quarantine,” a spokesperson said.
“Queensland is the most decentralised state in the country. Unsurprisingly, there is far less appropriate accommodation available in Brisbane compared to other major cities like Sydney.
“We are doing our fair share while ensuring we put in place measures to protect the Queensland community. The repatriation of Australian citizens from overseas is the responsibility of the Commonwealth Government.”
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Earlier...... STRANDED IN SPAIN
Bumped from her flight to Brisbane just 72 hours before she was due to leave Europe, Gold Coast teacher Emma Wood is one of thousands of Australians stranded overseas demanding limits on returning citizens be removed.
“Quite frankly it’s a disgrace and a shame,” said the 31-year-old.
Jobless and couchsurfing in Spain, the former Marymount College student said it made no sense for Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to continue to limit the number of international arrivals into the state to just 500 per week.
In July, the Federal Government introduced caps to limit arrivals into Australia to about 4000 a week. This figure was recently extended by national cabinet until October 24.
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It’s understood that while states and territories can voluntarily increase how many returned Australians they take into hotel quarantine, most are unlikely to do so.
Ms Wood said her flight home was booked for August 31, the day her lease expired, but Qatar dropped her from the manifest in accordance with the latest Australian Government restrictions. In the case of Brisbane this was 25 people and “I was not in that lucky group”.
“The next available flight I could get is for October 26 to Sydney, but I was told there’s no guarantee I’ll get on the flight. I really just want to get home,” she said.
“I feel incredibly let-down by the state and federal governments. I don’t know of any other country which is not allowing its own citizens and residents back home. Quite frankly it’s a disgrace and a shame.
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“Most of us don’t need financial help, all we need is for the cap to be removed or significantly raised so we can book seats and come home. Not only would this allow us to get on with our lives, it would also be beneficial to the hotels in Australia and the airlines themselves which are largely unoccupied.
“Also, the number of returned travellers that test positive for COVID-19 in Queensland are incredibly low.”
Ms Wood said planes were arriving “practically empty in Australia” and airlines were bumping off economy seats in favour of people forking out thousands for business class seats.
She also took aim at responses from officials that blamed citizens stranded overseas for not coming home earlier, saying they were “unhelpful and dismissive”.
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After living abroad for 13 years and teaching English in Barcelona for the past four years, she had work and housing commitments to fulfil. Back in March the Spanish Government also advised only essential international travel was allowed.
“It’s not just as easy to drop everything at a moment’s notice. I felt it would have been irresponsible of me to leave one of the worst hot spots in Europe, potentially bringing the virus with me,” she said.
“No one could imagine what was going to come next, confinement. The streets were empty save for the ambulances, whose relentless sirens became the soundtrack to our new, hidden lives.”
Ms Wood said she planned to return to the Gold Coast to continue her studies following last year’s bushfires after an extended family member in NSW lost their home.
“The fires made me realised that I wanted to be back, closer to home. But now I have no idea when I will actually make it back,” she said.
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Desperate for daughter’s return, Sally Wood, of Elanora, said she’d been in contact with both state and federal governments with both assigning blame to one another.
“Why is there still a cap? Emma is just one of thousands of desperate Australians stuck overseas. With a flick of a pen the Premier could raise the cap from 500 to 5000 and allow Queenslanders to get back home,” she said.
“I know some people have been bumped off flights five times, it’s really a disgrace that governments are stopping their own citizens from returning home.”
Ms Wood has thrown her support around a campaign to Remove the Cap, a movement started last Sunday to highlight the plight of Australian’s stuck overseas.
A response has been sought from the Premier’s office.
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