Australians stranded overseas have blasted the Morrison government for not doing enough to aid those still desperate to return home.
The number of Australians who have put their names forward to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to return has risen to 32,300, a Senate estimates committee was told on Tuesday.
The figure was 18,800 in late August.
Around 5,000 Australians stuck in the United Kingdom, India and South Africa will be able to fly home on eight flights as part of a new arrangement.
They will be quarantined in the Northern Territory at the state’s Howard Springs facility upon arrival.
Stefanie Szabo, 36, is a corporate lawyer from the Sunshine Coast, who has been working in Dubai for eight years.
Ms Szabo is a mother to two young children - a three-year-old boy and a new three-month-old baby girl.
Her parents have never met their new granddaughter, because she has no way to return home and they’re not allowed to fly in to see her.
Ms Szabo says the Darwin charter flights deal misses the point - that Australians are stranded due to the Morrison government’s policy on caps, not because they simply don’t want to come home.
“With the exception of vulnerable cases and children, which absolutely must be given priority, the sentiment I see from connecting with other Australians abroad is that they do not need to be rescued but simply want to get on the flights that they booked and paid for,” she told SBS News.
“I am not located in one of those cities yet I think it would be unrealistic for the Government to charter flights to more cities, including where I am located, when commercial networks already exist and Australians are willing to fly back at their own cost.”
She urged the government to “look at home first” and come up with a more efficient quarantine regime.
“The repatriation flights are great for optics - the Government looks like they are rescuing people when in reality they are trying to manage a situation that they themselves created.Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the deal will prioritise Australians who have been deemed "vulnerable" by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
The first two flights are scheduled to leave London on 22 October and New Delhi on 26 October, with each one carrying 175 passengers. The return date from Johannesburg is yet to be confirmed.
But no plans are yet in place for the tens of thousands of Australians stranded outside of these three cities.
Several of them told SBS News they see the Darwin deal as a band-aid solution, when the cap on flight arrivals is the real issue.
Mandish Kalsi, 27, arrived in Peru in September 2019, to work with a non-government organisation in the Sacred Valley.
Since May, the Sydneysider has been trying desperately to get back to Australia - but there are no international flights from Peru out of South America.
“For me, it’s not even a matter of trying to enter Australia, which is absolutely complicated as it is. I need to find a way out of Peru as well,” she told SBS News.
She said that while she’s “glad the government is doing something” to help more people get home, people outside of those three major hubs effectively remain abandoned.
“It would have been for them to organise at least one full flight that Australians could have taken from South America, because it’s estimated that there’s at least 500 of us stuck here, that need to get back.
“But the government isn’t organising anything for us, the embassy here has been non-responsive.”
Edward Neil, who is from Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, has been stranded in Myanmar since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
Edward Neil has been stranded in Myanmar with his wife since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Source: Supplied/Edward Neil
Mr Neil and his wife have been living and working in the city of Yangon for more than three years, but have been trying to fly home to Australia due to loss of work and for medical treatment.
“The Myanmar health system is not trustworthy and nearly all of the expats normally fly out to Bangkok or Singapore for anything serious. Now we cannot,” he told SBS News.
Mr Neil said he was “really annoyed and disappointed” when news of the Darwin charter flights came out.
“It’s almost the first time the federal government has done anything to help… and we overseas generally feel unsupported by Australia,” he said. “I tried contacting Greg Hunt a few weeks back as he is my Flinders member, no answer.”
Tara Tubman, from Sydney, spent nine years living in Hong Kong and working for HSBC.
During the pandemic, she was made redundant from her job and is now desperate to get home before 29 November - at which point she will effectively become homeless in Hong Kong.
“If I don't get my flight, I am concerned I will run out of money and will be sleeping on lounges until I can get on a flight back to Australia,” she told SBS News.
She urged the Morrison government to either raise the cap to a “reasonable level”, or allow home quarantine for people coming from low-risk countries.
Tara Tubman has called for more to be done to bring stranded Aussies home. Source: Supplied/Tara Tubman
“This reduces costs and pressure on hotels, security and police, therefore the caps can be raised,” she said.
“Hong Kong is a perfect example of where low-risk countries are direct to home quarantine with a wristband for 14 days.”
SBS News has contacted DFAT for comment.
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