Coroanavirus: 20,000 seats go empty as Aussies try to get home

International flights arrive in Australia with 20,000 empty seats each week as nearly 27,000 stranded people try to return home and DFAT struggles to help them.

The top five locations for Australians stranded overseas are India, Britain, the Philippines, Thailand and South Africa.

International flights arrive in Australia with 20,000 empty seats each week as nearly 27,000 stranded Aussies try to return home, but the country’s top diplomat says the federal government’s ability to repatriate more people is limited.

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade secretary Frances Adamson said 26,800 Australians had registered as wanting to come home, with 4000 of them classified as “vulnerable” people.

The top five locations for Australians overseas are India, Britain, the Philippines, Thailand and South Africa.

“There’s a limit to what we can do at the moment until a greater number of (hotel) quarantine places open up,” Ms Adamson told federal parliament’s inquiry into the government’s COVID-19 response on Thursday.

DFAT secretary Frances Adamson. Picture: Gary Ramage

“We are absolutely at the ready to take advantage of every single place if we can do that.”

Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo said the commonwealth had sought advice on how to boost hotel quarantine capacity by using its own accommodation facilities or assisting the states with more resources.

But he cautioned the states’ chief health officers were “very concerned” about coronavirus cases being imported from overseas through an under pressure quarantine system, like what occurred in Victoria.

“The advice is you can (boost hotel quarantine caps) but only at the cost of unravelling the medically agreed advice through the AHPPC (Australian Health Protection Principal Committee) about the risk tolerance about imported cases,” Mr Pezzullo said.

“The commonwealth is champing at the bit for the caps to be increased so we can get people home.”

Asked by opposition home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally what the commonwealth had offered the states and territories to increase quarantine, Mr Pezzullo responded: “Whatever they need.

“In some cases, as you’ve seen in the state of Victoria, sometimes those offers are not accepted.”

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has stood by his statement that it was “fundamentally incorrect to assert that there was hundreds of ADF staff on offer and somehow someone said no” at the start of the pandemic.

Mr Pezzullo said the commonwealth could offer more medical professionals to oversee hotel quarantine but then they would not be available to the states and territories for other work like contact tracing.

The number of Australians able to fly home will gradually increase from 4000 to 5600 a week by the middle of next month, under a plan agreed to by national cabinet.

Since September 2, $470,847 in hardship grants has been paid to Australians struggling overseas and $330,516 in loans.

Ms Adamson acknowledged some Australians had been referred to homeless shelters, saying her department tried to offer “whatever practical advice we can”.

Opposition home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally. Picture: Gary Ramage