Australians Stranded Abroad Have To Wait: PM

Majority of the Australians stuck abroad due to the Covid-19 induced travel restrictions may need to wait longer for reaching home as the Prime minister says a big ‘No’ to the alternative quarantine system. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has declared that the country is rejecting alternatives to hotel quarantine as it found unsafe.

Earlier Morrison had informed that he would consider “innovative” alternatives, including quarantine in-home, on-farm or on-campus for people who reach country from abroad.However, after national cabinet on Friday,Morrison told the reporters that Australia’s leading health advisers would not support the move as they are “not … options we can safely take on”.

It is estimated that there are around 36,500 Australians stranded overseas.

In the context of not accepting alternative quarantine for citizens who come to the country and Victoria’s hotel quarantine program still suspended, Morrison said Australia will bring just 25,000 Australians home by the year’s end against 36,500 citizens who have registered to return. Capacity would grow when Melbourne starts accepting arrivals, he said.

“The challenges are still greater than the capacity to receive people in quarantine,” he said. Morrison noted that numbers of Australians intending to return had grown from 26,000 in mid-September and likened it to “a cup that keeps filling up”.

“Australia will maintain its quarantine arrangements for people coming from overseas,” he said.
“There is a queue, and Australians are in the front of the queue,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra.
Australia has also decided not to get back foreign students for the time being as they prefer return of citizens stuck abroad,Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday.