Overseas students locked out

SCOTT Morrison will immediately halt plans to bring thousands of international students back to Australia in order to get more citizens home as the COVID-19 pandemic ramps up overseas.

But the Prime Minister confirmed South Australia and the Northern Territory’s planned trials to bring students back would go ahead, as they were being done outside overseas arrivals caps.

Mr Morrison, pictured, said the country would halt any further plans to get international students back as the situation overseas was “deteriorating” and the priority would be to get Australians home.

“This is a question of priorities. And our priorities must be to look after Australian citizens and residents first ,” Mr Morrison said.

“We need to use every available space that we have in quarantine.”

Even more Australians stranded overseas were registering with authorities as wanting to come home as the pandemic escalated, Mr Morrison said, adding that the situation in Europe and the US was “very serious”.

“What we are seeing around the world… is heartbreaking ,” Mr Morrison said.

The US yesterday recorded more than 150,000 new coronavirus cases, the highest for any country in a single day during the pandemic.

The federal government has already signed off on SA’s trial to bring up to 300 students back to help revive the state’s $2bn international education sector and to prove the safe travel corridors model.