Coronavirus: Overseas stranded Australians face fear and loathing

There is growing despair among Australians stranded overseas as hotel quarantine caps and outbound travel by compatriots restricts the number able to get flights home to a trickle.

Perth’s Anu Besson, husband Eliot and their 20-month-old son, managed to fly home from Europe in November after months of trying.

There is growing despair among Australians stranded overseas as hotel quarantine caps and continuing outbound travel by compatriots restricts the number of citizens able to get flights home to a trickle.

Despite Scott Morrison’s pledge to get “as many people home, if not all, by Christmas”, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has confirmed there are still 39,000 Australians trapped offshore who want to return.

Under COVID hotel quarantine caps, only 5722 people are allowed to enter a week, pushing up prices for seats on the few commercial airlines still operating to Australian cities to up to $15,000.

At the same time, the Department of Home Affairs says more than 91,000 Australians have secured exemptions to leave the country since the end of March, adding to the potential backlog of those who will want to return.

On Facebook forums, many stranded citizens are furious at the government for failing to open more hotel quarantine places and believe they have been portrayed as irresponsible for not returning earlier, despite the huge unmet demand for flights.

One Australian woman stuck in the UK, who declined to be identified, said: “Literally, our own country has no idea what is actually going on for us – the struggles we are having and the financial ruin we face. And then to top it off we are hated by the public.”

Perth’s Trevor James, 80, and wife Brigitte, 74, were in Malaysia when borders were closed in late March. They have been unable to get a flight home, and are waiting out the crisis in a unit in Penang.

“It’s the border caps. We just can’t afford the prices of the tickets,” Mr James said. “And so many flights are cancelled at the last minute. We could have got a flight back, this was months ago, but we would have had to go to Dubai from Kuala Lumpur, and then back to Perth. That was $24,000 they wanted – because of capping.”

Perth’s Anu Besson, husband Eliot and their 20-month-old son, managed to fly home from Europe in November after months of trying. “It’s impossible to describe how it feels to be a pariah in your own country, banned from returning home by the same politicians whose salary you pay via taxes,” Ms Besson said. “And hotel quarantine and travel bans do not apply to politicians who make these rules – they’re exempt, along with DFAT staff.”

Australian Jim Maxwell, stuck in the UK, said many citizens could not take repatriation flights because they had pets, and animal quarantine places were unavailable in sufficient numbers.

“Many of us are stranded because we cannot leave without our pets,” he said. “They urgently need to open a backup (animal) quarantine station.”

On Facebook, some stranded citizens rums called for the government to adopt a New Zealand-style system in which flights and hotel quarantine bookings are sold as a package, reducing the chance of cancellations at the last minute due to a lack of quarantine places.

A DFAT spokesman said 54,600 Australians had returned from overseas since September 18, when the PM pledged a massive pre-Christmas effort to get stranded citizens home. “Since October 23, 17 commercial flights have been facilitated by the Australian government,” he said. “There will be more … including from the UK, Europe and India.

“Numbers on all facilitated flights are restricted by caps as applied by states and territories and agreed by national cabinet.”