Australia will FINALLY reopen its borders in November and allow vaccinated citizens to travel

402

View
comments

Australia has announced plans to rejoin the rest of the world by ending its strict Covid border quarantine starting next month, ending 18 months under some of the toughest restrictions on the planet.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that, from November 1, fully vaccinated Australians from states where more than 80 per cent of people are double-jabbed will be allowed to travel abroad freely – having been banned from leaving without a valid excuse since March 2020. 

Fully jabbed Australians and permanent residents returning from abroad will also be allowed to quarantine for just seven days at home rather than being locked up for 14 days in quarantine hotels at a cost of £1,600 each.

That means the cap on how many Australians can enter the country each week – currently limited by hotel capacity – will effectively be lifted, allowing some 30,000 people who have been stranded abroad since the pandemic began to go home.

Flights are also expected to increase in-line with demand, bringing the costs of tickets down in addition to the hotel quarantine fees being scrapped – meaning those who were priced-out of the border controls can also get home.

The rule-change comes just in time for Christmas, meaning thousands of families kept apart by Covid can now reunite in what are sure to be emotional scenes.

But the plans have not brought joy for everyone, especially 1.6million temporary visa holders in Australia – including large numbers of overseas students – who appear to have been left out of the new regime.

As things stand, it appears temporary visa holders hoping to be allowed out of the country for the festive season before returning to Australia will still need a valid excuse to go – such as the death of a loved one. 

Mr Morrison also did not make it clear whether exemptions will be made for those who cannot be fully vaccinated for medical reasons.

Un-jabbed Australians will be allowed to go abroad under the plans announced today, but will still be subject to 14-day quarantine on their return.

And those living in states which are lagging behind in the national vaccination drive will also be left waiting longer to travel, as Mr Morrison linked the reopening of borders to hitting an 80 per cent fully-jabbed target.

One of those who fears missing out is Amy Hayes, and Australian living in Reading in the UK, who wants to fly home to her native Queensland to see her grandfather.

But just 45 per cent of Queenslanders have been fully jabbed, compared to 65 per cent in neighbouring New South Wales, meaning it is unlikely that travel to the state will be allowed before Christmas.

Speaking to the BBC, Miss Hayes said: ‘All my family and friends are in Brisbane and so although I might be able to fly to Sydney or Melbourne, what would be the point when the Queensland border is still closed with no indication of when it’ll open? 

‘I’m just one of thousands of stranded Aussies. I’m fortunate in that I have not been subjected to the cruelty of having to grieve for a loved one overseas or in quarantine, or had any emergency to travel back for. I’m grateful every day for that.

“For me, and many like me it’s the everyday moments we are missing out on, having extended time away from friends and family and grappling with the erosion of our Australian identity.’

Mr Morrison said the plans will eventually be expanded to include foreigners – teeing up the return of tourism on which large sectors of Australia’s economy relies – but did not give a date for when those rules will be announced. 

‘The time has come to give Australians their life back. We’re getting ready for that, and Australia will be ready for takeoff, very soon,’ MR Morrison said.   

On March 20 last year Australia introduced some of the world’s toughest border restrictions in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

For the last 560 days countless international flights have been grounded, and overseas travel has slowed to a trickle as only those in ‘exceptional circumstances’ such as essential work or visiting a dying relative could travel.

Families have been split across continents, an estimated 30,000 nationals were stranded overseas and foreign residents were stuck in the country unable to see friends or relatives.

More than 100,000 requests to enter or leave the country were denied in the first five months of this year alone, according to Department of Home Affairs data. 

Morrison also announced that vaccinated residents would be able to home quarantine for seven days on their return, dodging the current mandatory and costly 14-day hotel quarantine.

Unvaccinated Australians will still have to complete the mandatory 14-day quarantine stint in hotels or designated facilities upon their return. 

Aussies who cannot be vaccinated including those under 12 or with a medical condition will be treated as vaccinated for the purposes of their travel.

The exact timing of the border reopenings will depend on when Australian states reach their 80 percent vaccination targets, and crucially on local political approval.

The most populous state of New South Wales currently has 64 percent of those aged over 16 fully vaccinated and has indicated it will hit 70 and 80 percent targets this month.  

‘We’ve saved lives. We’ve saved livelihoods, but we must work together to ensure that Australians can reclaim the lives that they once had in this country,’ Morrison said.

But most Australian states – most notably West Australia and Queensland – still have no widespread community transmission, are persuing a strategy of ‘Covid-zero’ and remain shut to other parts of the country.

Friday’s announcements could mean that within a month it is easier for those in Sydney or Melbourne to travel to London or New York than to go to Perth or Brisbane.

Australian flag carrier Qantas welcomed the decision, announcing it would restart flights to London and Los Angeles on November 14.

Expats and foreign residents gave the news a cautious welcome on social media forums. But experts say many Australians will remain cautious about booking travel for fear of snap lockdowns or other disruptions.

And the impact of the unprecedented period in the country’s history could be felt for years to come.

‘Australia has been a fortress nation with the drawbridge pulled up to the rest of the world,’ Tim Soutphommasane, an academic and former Australian race discrimination commissioner told AFP.

‘What we’re seeing now with this announcement of borders being reopened is akin to Australia re-entering the world, and it’s long overdue,’ he said.

A Lowy Institute poll in May showed that a plurality of Australians backed the tough border measures, with 41 percent of those in support.

Only 18 percent said fellow nationals should be free to leave.

‘Australia in recent decades has been an emphatically open and multicultural and cosmopolitan country.

‘It has been a trading nation. But Covid has seen the nation turn the clock back,’ said Soutphommasane.

He added: ‘There has been a sense of parochialism and insularity that has shaped the nation’s response to Covid-19. The rest of the world may well be looking at this thinking that Australia has changed fundamentally as a country.’