Hundreds of Australians stranded on Norwegian Jewel cruise ship land in Sydney
Hundreds of Australians stranded for weeks on board the ill-fated Norwegian Jewel cruise ship – refused permission to dock in four countries – landed in Sydney on a Qantas repatriation flight on Thursday morning.
But thousands of Australians still stuck overseas by closed borders and cancelled flights will not be able to get home during the global Covid-19 pandemic, the government has conceded.
The foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, said her department would work with largely grounded airlines Qantas and Virgin to repatriate citizens on “non-scheduled flights” where possible, but it would be impossible to reach every Australian who wanted to come home.
Hundreds of thousands of Australians are currently caught overseas, many in countries which completely sealed off their borders with only a few hours notice in an attempt to rein in the spread of Covid-19.
Others are stranded in remote areas of countries, hemmed in by militaryenforced curfews, or where all internal movement is prohibited, meaning airports are out of reach.
Nearly 300 Australians who were stuck on board the Norwegian Jewel cruise ship were brought home on a Qantas repatriation flight from Hawaii.
Flight QF6034 departed Honolulu on Wednesday afternoon, after more than a day’s delay while authority to land in Australia was organised.
The Norwegian Jewel had been stranded at sea, sailing around the Pacific, for weeks, and refused permission to dock in four countries, including Australia, before passengers were allowed ashore in Hawaii.
Passengers on board the flight back to Australia were given a formal government notice to quarantine on arrival.
There have been no cases of Covid-19 reported on board the ship, but the excoriating public reaction to infected Ruby Princess passengers being allowed to disembark unchecked in Sydney – to this point the genesis of more than 100 confirmed cases across the country, but certain to rise – has made the Australian government especially concerned about cruise ship passengers.
“Hundreds of thousands” of Australians remain overseas, Payne said, urging all citizens to return home if they could, while acknowledging it was difficult or impossible for many.
There are thousands of Australians in the US, UK and across Europe. More than 300 Australians are in locked down Peru, and more than 100 in Ecuador, while Australians are also stranded in Egypt, Palestine, Colombia, Morocco and dozens of other countries.
Both Qantas and Virgin have slashed their flight networks in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. Payne said the government was working with both airlines on running flights to rescue stranded Australians “where existing commercial flights are exhausted”.
“Last night, the government also agreed to consider, on a case-by-case basis, supporting our airlines to operate non-scheduled services to less central locations to bring Australians home,” Payne said. “These will only be done where it is feasible, where all other commercial options have been exhausted and where local authorities will permit such flights.”
The minister said there were no plans for assisted departures such as those from Wuhan, in China, where the pandemic originated, and Japan.
Payne conceded that Australia would not be able to bring all of its citizens home during the Covid-19 outbreak.
“Given the unprecedented scale of the global interruption to travel, the options outlined will not return all Australian travellers home,” the minister said.
“It may be necessary for some Australians to stay where they are overseas, and as far as practicable remain safe and comfortable, including by following the directions of local authorities.”
Australians stuck overseas have said they have been frustrated by the lack of contact from Australian embassies and Dfat staff in Australia, and formal efforts to get Australians home.
Other countries, such as Canada, Israel and the US, launched repatriation missions in the days immediately after borders were closed.
In a letter to the foreign minister’s office, the retired Brisbane teacher Gordon Upham, who managed to secure a seat out of Lima on a US-run evacuation flight, said “the experience of trying to get consular assistance from the Australian government was extremely disappointing and troubling”.
Australia’s embassy in Lima was closed and uncontactable, while phone calls to Dfat’s offices in Canberra went unanswered and emails unreturned.
“Whilst rhetoric from the embassy and the government seems to suggest that things are happening, other nations are actually succeeding in making rescue missions take place ...” Upham wrote. “Affordable solutions need to be found urgently. I know of at least one family of four who say they cannot afford over $20,000 to come home.”
Hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals currently in Australia also cannot get home because of cancelled flights or closed borders.
Several countries have told their nationals they have missed governmentimposed deadlines to return.
Papua New Guinea, Australia’s closest neighbour, forced a Qantas jet to turn back because it had passengers on board. PNG’s state of emergency demands no one is allowed into the country, even its citizens.
Peru’s borders have been shut to all incoming passengers, with thousands
of its citizens stranded overseas, including in Australia.
Qantas is also set to operate the world’s first non-stop flight from
Darwin to Heathrow as Britons struggle to return to the UK amid the coronavirus
crisis.