Post by bear on Aug 28, 2020 19:22:34 GMT 7
Rescue plan to bring home stranded Aussies from overseas
Stranded Australians would be evacuated from overseas and placed into quarantine in facilities in remote areas of Australia under rescue missions being drawn up by the Morrison government.
At least three federal government departments are working on a large-scale plan to bring back Australians who urgently need to fly home and have been blocked by strict caps on international arrivals.
The government could rely on airlines such as Qantas to get stranded Australians home.
It can also be revealed desperate Australians who are trying to get back to the country are being coached by government officials to start GoFundMe-style crowdfunding campaigns if they are running out of money, as international travel has ground to a near halt during the coronavirus pandemic.
The rescue plan is not imminent, but it is being worked on to respond to a range of scenarios — including if a country started deporting Australians because they had cancelled their visas and wouldn't renew them.
A separate multimillion-dollar fund will also be established to support overseas-based citizens who are struggling financially and cannot get home.
The plans are being developed in response to anger from stranded citizens, growing uneasiness among Australia's network of ambassadors and a flurry of calls to backbench MPs by angry constituents.
The plan to quarantine returned Australians outside of capital cities is being drawn up to alleviate state government concerns they wouldn't have the capacity to deal with any more returned travellers if the cap of about 4000 travellers a week needed to be lifted.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Home Affairs and Defence have all been working on the rescue scenarios. The government has not yet settled on where to quarantine returned citizens, but remote locations in Western Australia and the Northern Territory are being considered, according to senior government sources.
It is unclear whether the government would get Australians home by using existing commercial airline routes, or whether it would have to enlist an airline such as Qantas to run special flights.
A recent detailed proposal for specially arranged flights for some Australians at risk in Europe was not accepted by federal ministers.
At least four Coalition MPs raised the issue of the cap on international arrivals at a Coalition party room meeting this week after fielding concerns from constituents about family members trapped overseas.
National cabinet decided to halve the number of arrivals to Australia in July after Victoria stopped taking returned travellers amid its second coronavirus wave.
Since then, airlines have been prioritising business and first-class passengers to remain profitable, with planes carrying as few as four economy passengers.
Talking points issued to diplomatic missions around the world are encouraging consular officials to talk through a range of options for citizens affected by the cap — including asking the person whether they could rely on sporting clubs, churches or other community groups for help. If not, the talking points direct the telephone operator to suggest an online crowdfunding campaign to raise money.
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have spoken to a number of Australian diplomatic representatives in the Americas, Europe and Asia who said the caps were causing major damage to the mental health of stranded citizens.
There are growing calls for the government to review its ban on Australians travelling overseas, critics saying the policy makes Australia a prison island.
"Every night, I worry that the stress of all this might end in real tragedy," said one figure, who asked not to be named. "There are so many genuine cases of real hardship and we are trying our best but the policy means we can't do everything we should be doing."
They all expressed anger that their concerns about the policy had not been met with a proper response from Canberra. Some also said they were concerned for consular staff in overseas missions who had been inundated with requests for help from desperate Australians and were struggling with the workload and emotional nature of some individual circumstances.
Some officials stressed that only a fraction of their caseloads were people who had the chance to return to Australia when the government advised them to in mid-March but ignored the recommendation.
There is rising concern that Australia's embassies are expending valuable political capital in repeatedly asking foreign governments to extend the visas of stranded Australians. The rescue plan is being worked on with this in mind.
"At some point, a country is going to put their foot down and say no. Then what happens?" said another representative.
The issue is complicated with DFAT, Home Affairs, the Department of Infrastructure, and Department of Health all sharing roles in administering the inbound and outbound coronavirus border restrictions. Changes to the system also have to go through the increasingly divided national cabThe cap on international arrivals will be reviewed next week.
A "Supporting Australians Overseas Fund", which was due to be discussed at a meeting of the expenditure review committee on Thursday, would involve spending millions of dollars on supporting Australians stuck overseas.
Opponents of the existing policy argue the fund would be "window dressing" and not solve the main problem of actually getting people back to Australia.
They also cautioned against small increases to the cap, arguing there were only two realistic options to get the tens of thousands of Australians home: abandoning the international cap regime entirely so that the aviation industry can operate unimpeded, or create a series of specially facilitated flights, potentially via Qantas or another carrier, that are partially subsidised.
One member of cabinet noted the Australian Defence Force had six KC-30A Multi-Role Tanker aircraft stationed at the RAAF Base Amberley in Queensland. Each plane can carry 270 passengers.
www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/rescue-plan-to-bring-home-stranded-aussies-from-overseas-20200827-p55ptr.html
Stranded Australians would be evacuated from overseas and placed into quarantine in facilities in remote areas of Australia under rescue missions being drawn up by the Morrison government.
At least three federal government departments are working on a large-scale plan to bring back Australians who urgently need to fly home and have been blocked by strict caps on international arrivals.
The government could rely on airlines such as Qantas to get stranded Australians home.
It can also be revealed desperate Australians who are trying to get back to the country are being coached by government officials to start GoFundMe-style crowdfunding campaigns if they are running out of money, as international travel has ground to a near halt during the coronavirus pandemic.
The rescue plan is not imminent, but it is being worked on to respond to a range of scenarios — including if a country started deporting Australians because they had cancelled their visas and wouldn't renew them.
A separate multimillion-dollar fund will also be established to support overseas-based citizens who are struggling financially and cannot get home.
The plans are being developed in response to anger from stranded citizens, growing uneasiness among Australia's network of ambassadors and a flurry of calls to backbench MPs by angry constituents.
The plan to quarantine returned Australians outside of capital cities is being drawn up to alleviate state government concerns they wouldn't have the capacity to deal with any more returned travellers if the cap of about 4000 travellers a week needed to be lifted.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Home Affairs and Defence have all been working on the rescue scenarios. The government has not yet settled on where to quarantine returned citizens, but remote locations in Western Australia and the Northern Territory are being considered, according to senior government sources.
It is unclear whether the government would get Australians home by using existing commercial airline routes, or whether it would have to enlist an airline such as Qantas to run special flights.
A recent detailed proposal for specially arranged flights for some Australians at risk in Europe was not accepted by federal ministers.
At least four Coalition MPs raised the issue of the cap on international arrivals at a Coalition party room meeting this week after fielding concerns from constituents about family members trapped overseas.
National cabinet decided to halve the number of arrivals to Australia in July after Victoria stopped taking returned travellers amid its second coronavirus wave.
Since then, airlines have been prioritising business and first-class passengers to remain profitable, with planes carrying as few as four economy passengers.
Talking points issued to diplomatic missions around the world are encouraging consular officials to talk through a range of options for citizens affected by the cap — including asking the person whether they could rely on sporting clubs, churches or other community groups for help. If not, the talking points direct the telephone operator to suggest an online crowdfunding campaign to raise money.
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have spoken to a number of Australian diplomatic representatives in the Americas, Europe and Asia who said the caps were causing major damage to the mental health of stranded citizens.
There are growing calls for the government to review its ban on Australians travelling overseas, critics saying the policy makes Australia a prison island.
"Every night, I worry that the stress of all this might end in real tragedy," said one figure, who asked not to be named. "There are so many genuine cases of real hardship and we are trying our best but the policy means we can't do everything we should be doing."
They all expressed anger that their concerns about the policy had not been met with a proper response from Canberra. Some also said they were concerned for consular staff in overseas missions who had been inundated with requests for help from desperate Australians and were struggling with the workload and emotional nature of some individual circumstances.
Some officials stressed that only a fraction of their caseloads were people who had the chance to return to Australia when the government advised them to in mid-March but ignored the recommendation.
There is rising concern that Australia's embassies are expending valuable political capital in repeatedly asking foreign governments to extend the visas of stranded Australians. The rescue plan is being worked on with this in mind.
"At some point, a country is going to put their foot down and say no. Then what happens?" said another representative.
The issue is complicated with DFAT, Home Affairs, the Department of Infrastructure, and Department of Health all sharing roles in administering the inbound and outbound coronavirus border restrictions. Changes to the system also have to go through the increasingly divided national cabThe cap on international arrivals will be reviewed next week.
A "Supporting Australians Overseas Fund", which was due to be discussed at a meeting of the expenditure review committee on Thursday, would involve spending millions of dollars on supporting Australians stuck overseas.
Opponents of the existing policy argue the fund would be "window dressing" and not solve the main problem of actually getting people back to Australia.
They also cautioned against small increases to the cap, arguing there were only two realistic options to get the tens of thousands of Australians home: abandoning the international cap regime entirely so that the aviation industry can operate unimpeded, or create a series of specially facilitated flights, potentially via Qantas or another carrier, that are partially subsidised.
One member of cabinet noted the Australian Defence Force had six KC-30A Multi-Role Tanker aircraft stationed at the RAAF Base Amberley in Queensland. Each plane can carry 270 passengers.
www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/rescue-plan-to-bring-home-stranded-aussies-from-overseas-20200827-p55ptr.html
