Australia to bring home more stranded citizens abroad

With the calls increasing for bringing home the stranded Australians abroad, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said Australia will allow a few hundred more citizens and permanent residents to return home from overseas each week, reports the Aljazeera.

According to the report the cap will rise to 5,865 people in November, an increase of 290, after Western Australia and Queensland states said they could accommodate more people. Western Australia agreed to take an extra 140 returnees each week and Queensland 150.
The country’s weekly limit is currently set at 4,000 people.

Morrison said there were an estimated 26,000 stranded Australians wanting to return home which the government has pledged to facilitate before Christmas.

“With the success we have had as a country in recent months, we can start opening up again and we can start helping Australians getting home again,” Morrison told a press briefing as reported by Reuters.

“The most effective way to get Australians home is to increase these caps,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra.
Australia closed its international borders early in the pandemic, and imposed strict lockdowns and social distancing measures, dramatically reducing the spread of the virus. It currently has a mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine for all international arrivals.

Earlier, Indian officials had informed that Australia has been excluded from travel bubble agreement because of its low intake of residents and citizens stranded across the world. “Australia is taking 5000-odd people from the world over. How can there be an air bubble with Australia?” an official asked, according to reports.

Even Qatar Airways’ CEO Mr Akbar Al Baker talked about the inconsistency regarding border restrictions and also referred Australia’s border restrictions when discussing the difficulties of maintaining services there.