Susie O’Brien: Australia’s borders should close to India — including for cashed-up cricketers

Australia must close its borders to India now, only offer flights for urgent humanitarian or medical aid and not give cricket stars any special treatment.

Australia must close its borders to India immediately.

It’s the right thing to do for their sake and ours.

Only those offering urgent humanitarian or medical aid should be able to travel from Australia to India.

Special arrangements should also be made to accommodate returning Australians because of the high chance of them having the virus.

We need to get Aussies home, but we also need to stop them from travelling there in the first place.

Family members wearing protective gear carry the body of a victim who died of coronavirus towards a pyre in India.

Australians should not be able to go to India to do business or attend weddings, sporting events or family reunions until this catastrophe has passed.

Let’s remember that a man from Australia - who flew to India to attend his wedding and subsequently tested positive for the virus - sparked the recent WA lockdown.

With new cases soaring beyond 350,000 a day, we cannot afford to continue to allow travel between our two countries.

The Indians have more than enough to deal right now, given that oxygen supplies are running out, hospitals are overflowing and crematoriums are full.

A member of medical staff wearing protective gear carries the body of a Covid victim.

People are literally dying in the streets, and so countries like Australia have a duty to evacuate our citizens to alleviate the pressure on precious medical resources.

The 8000 Australians stranded over there should be housed in a separate quarantine facility because of the risks they pose.

We’ve had the virus escape from hotels where there were only a few dozen cases – the risk of spread from potentially thousands of positive cases is great.

The Australian cricketers who accepted handsome pay packets to play in the Indian Premier League, should not be given special clearance to fly home ahead of anyone else.

David Warner, pictured with Kane Williamson, flight between games in the IPL in India.

They should wait their turn. There should be exemptions only for the most pressing humanitarian or compassionate reasons.

Richer countries like Australia, the US and Britain have a responsibility to help this poor virus-ravaged country.

The US, which has an advanced vaccination program, should share some of the 30 million AstraZeneca doses it has stockpiled.

As families bury their loved ones in their gardens and towns and desperate relatives go from hospital to hospital searching for oxygen, we have a duty to do all we can to help those in India.