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Entrance to the arrivals hall at the international airport in Brisbane
Tens of thousands of Australians remain stranded overseas with airfares spiking after Scott Morrison’s announcement that the international arrivals cap will be halved. Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP
Tens of thousands of Australians remain stranded overseas with airfares spiking after Scott Morrison’s announcement that the international arrivals cap will be halved. Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP

‘It makes me sick’: families of Australians stranded overseas devastated after arrivals cap slashed

This article is more than 3 years old

Father of three-year-old citizen stuck overseas says the move wouldn’t be necessary if the vaccine rollout had been better handled

The families of Australians stranded overseas have criticised a national cabinet decision to halve the incoming arrivals cap, likely for the rest of the year, saying it is cruel and wouldn’t have been necessary if the vaccine rollout had been better handled.

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, announced on Friday that the federal, state and territory governments had agreed on a four-phase plan to manage Australia’s “pathway” out of the pandemic.

The first phase of the plan, known as “vaccinate, prepare and pilot” involves halving the arrival cap until Australia vaccinates its population to an as-yet-unspecified rate.

Tony Sammartino, whose three-year old daughter, an Australian citizen, is stranded overseas, says the cap wouldn’t have been slashed if the federal government had managed the vaccine rollout properly.

Tens of thousands of Australians who wish to return remain stranded overseas and airfares to Australia spiked immediately after Friday’s announcement.

Sammartino has not seen his daughter for nearly 18 months. He told Guardian Australia he was left “angry” and “sick” by the announcement.

“I had to turn off the television, I had a sore vein in my chest, it makes me sick what they’ve done,” he said. “I speak to strangers, and people don’t even understand, your daughter has been away … tickets are $5,000, they don’t realise that.

“It made me angry. Usually, I get demoralised, the presser zaps the energy. But I couldn’t lie down, I couldn’t sleep. I am keeping myself occupied by cleaning and reorganising the house.”

Morrison said on Friday that halving of the cap was necessary to due to the rapid spread of the Delta variant and was needed to relieve pressure on Australia’s quarantine system.

Sammartino said it was ridiculous that the vaccination stage was not already complete.

“You had a year to do it,” he said. “Manage the vaccine, manage the cap. What is the logic in it?”

He said even if his family found the money to pay for exorbitant flights and quarantine the new halved cap could stop his daughter from returning. “I could win the Powerball, $60m, and I still couldn’t get her back, because he’d stop her flying in,” he said.

Sophie McNeill from Human Rights Watch Australia said the reduction in seats was “devastating” for Australians overseas and people should have a right of return. “Australia has heavily restricted entry of its own citizens in a way that no other democratic nation has,” she said.

Under phase one of the pathway plan, some states will trial allowing vaccinated Australians to quarantine at home, for seven days, rather than the current 14 days in hotel quarantine.

Under phase two, the international arrivals cap would be restored to the previous level for unvaccinated travellers, with a separate, larger cap for vaccinated travellers.

The existing cap is 6,070 per week. It will be cut to 3,035 by 14 July, Morrison said on Friday.

The prime minister said Australia would “possibly” reach phase two in 2022, meaning the halved cap would likely be in place until the end of 2021.

Under phase three, the government would treat Covid like any other infectious disease, such as the flu, and there would be no cap on returning vaccinated travellers and an increased cap on entries for non-Australian visa holders.

But Sammartino said that the promise of a higher cap in six months was not good enough.

“You’re talking about January, that is three months short of two years I haven’t seen my daughter. It’s killing me, you understand? That pain in my chest. My god. I wanted them back last November.”

The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said on Friday she was opposed to reducing the cap which was promoted by Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia.

“My heart goes out to thousands of Australians who have to wait longer to come home,” she said after the national cabinet meeting. “Just because you reduce the number of people coming in doesn’t mean outbreaks aren’t going to happen.”

McNeill said “all Australians have a right of return to their own country”.

“Any limitations on that right due to public health grounds should be necessary and proportionate. At this stage of the pandemic, the Australian government needs to prioritise finding more ways to safely quarantine Australians returning from overseas,” she said.

Restaurant and Catering Australia warned the cap cut would lead to skills shortages.

“[It] will have follow on effects for skilled migrants and international students which our industry is in such critical need of,” the association’s chief executive, Wes Lambert, said. “[But] we understand that due to the transmissibility of the Delta variant of the virus this move will assist state health agencies in getting on top of outbreaks currently in place across the country.”

The association welcomed the plan overall for providing “light at the end of a tunnel for our entire industry”.

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