COVID-19 leaves fly-in, fly-out workers in limbo

Hundreds of fly-in, fly-out workers overseas are facing a choice between going without work or returning to quarantine.

Travel restrictions as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak has left many FIFO workers stranded. Picture: Mark Agnor

Hundreds of Australian fly-in, fly-out workers living overseas have been left in limbo by new self-isolation rules, facing a choice between being stranded internationally without work or returning to Australia where they have nowhere to quarantine themselves.

Mick Brown, 50, lives with his girlfriend in Vietnam when he is not driving trucks at mines in Western Australia’s Pilbara.

He is one of the hundreds of FIFO workers who used to catch the direct flight between Port Hedland and Bali each week, attracted by the lifestyle and lower cost of living in Asia.

The new quarantine rules, introduced since he last flew out to Bali and then on to Vietnam, mean he needs to spend two weeks in isolation when he returns to Australia before he goes back to work. He was originally supposed to be back at work in Sunday.

He does not have a home in Australia, and friends and relatives were understandably unwilling to take him in given the fears around the virus.

“When I left the country it was still OK to travel on all the government websites,” he told The Australian.

“While I’ve been away they’ve put this new rule in place, the whole ballgame has changed and I’m in limbo.”

He said that he and hundreds of other Australian workers in a similar position had nowhere to stay once they returned.

Mr Brown called on the government to come up with an accommodation solution for citizens with nowhere to self-isolate.

“Is there any assistance for people like me, who don’t live in Perth? A lot of people fly back from Thailand or the Philippines, and they organise their flights so they are only in Perth for a few hours and then they are on a plane to work,” he said.

“We just don’t have accommodation in Perth.”

Hundreds of other Australians work as expats on mines around the world. Mr Brown said he knew of one Australian in West Papua who was required to spend his entire break onsite at the mine, given quarantine restrictions in place.