‘We will do whatever we can’: Stranded Aussies struggling to return home

A ­national cabinet decision to dramatically cut the number of overseas travellers has left 37 000 Australians stranded overseas.

Tens of thousands of Australians are stranded overseas desperate to home. Picture: AAP

Jessica McCauley and her family are stranded in Hong Kong, and fear they are about to become homeless with an eight-week-old baby in one the world’s most expensive cities.

The young mother is one of 37,000 stranded Australians desperate to return from overseas.

“It’s easy to put policies in place from afar but if you speak to the thousands of stranded Australians, they all have their own story of their desperate hopes and attempts to return to Australia,” she said.

After the UK variant of the coronavirus escaped hotel quarantine and entered the community in Brisbane last week, the ­national cabinet dramatically cut the number of overseas travellers allowed to enter Australia.

The number permitted into Queensland, NSW and Western Australia will be halved, leaving a cap of about 6000 overseas arrivals each week.

But there may be a knock-on effect, with some airlines threatening to cut flights even further in response to the tighter restrictions. Many Australians who had been confident of getting home now fear they will be kicked off their flights.

Ms McCauley and her family are stranded in Hong Kong. In October her husband lost his job as a pilot, forcing the pair to plan to return home.

With her heavily pregnant and unable to fly, leaving immediately was not an option.

Now that their son is born and they are in a position to travel, anxieties have set in that they will be kicked off their $7300 flights in early February.

“(We) have hoped that our business-class fare will guarantee us a seat on the flight but the halving of the flight caps have killed all hope of that,” she said.

Andrew Melville and fiancee Elva are stuck in Malaysia. The couple and their children were sent out of Australia to process her partner visa before COVID hit in early 2020.

After the visa was granted in December, they booked the first flights available for February 1.

The flights were cancelled within hours of the national cabinet press conference.

“What are we supposed to do now?” Mr Melville said.

“There’s a lot of people who think of stranded Australians as holiday-goers but we never wanted to leave in the first place. We were happy in Brisbane.”

Mr Melville said his overwhelming feeling was one of uncertainty, as his confidence that they would go home soon diminished. The feeling is exacerbated by what he describes as a “knee-jerk reaction from the Queensland government” in locking down Brisbane. “To lock down a city after just one case, even if it’s the UK strain, is just fear mongering,” he said.

As the national cabinet also decided that all overseas travellers must be tested before flying, the stranded family is taking steps to become “travel-ready”.

“We are going to make it so that we can get out of this country at the drop of a hat,” Mr Melville said. “Weekly COVID tests, if we need to. We will do whatever we can.”

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