Australia to Reduce Incoming Int. Passenger Capacity from July 2021

[RAM]

And apparently we are now able to significantly increase quarantine capacity to bring in many more people being evacuated from Afghanistan. While I have no problem bringing in the evacuees, I wonder why we couldn't have expanded quarantine capacity over the past year to bring back those stranded overseas.

Or is this just a 'smirk & mirrors' exercise? Announcement made for political capital knowing that near zero will make it to the airport?

Given that before the complete fall of Kabul - there were reportedly hundreds of Afghanis with Visas (dating back to 2019 issuance) that could not safely travel to Kabul, then as Australia shut the borders (IIRC ) none arrived in 2020 and then none in 2021 until one journalist began 'banging the drum' along with a Federal MP.

Remember that the bulk of Afghanis who worked with the Australian presence in Afghanistan were not located in Kabul but Kandhar province in the far south. By road (shortest direct route) is over 650km. From the region around the main base of operations = over 700km.

That province had been isolated for some weeks. The final onslaught with our base at Tarin Kowt in Uruzgan province over 300km away & one of (if not the last military action) the last to fall in all of Afghanistan was some time on August 13/14th. Here the Afghani military stood their ground, defending the base and repulsed at least one assault, reportedly after they were told leave or all would be beheaded.

Some 250 Afghan interpreters – many of them located in Tarin Kowt and the former Taliban southern stronghold of Kandahar – are seeking visas to relocate to Australia with their family members. About a dozen former aid contractors and 195 contracted ¬security guards are also seeking asylum but have been told they are not eligible because they were not direct employees of the Australian government.

Appalling outcome.

 

[dajop]

Some 250 Afghan interpreters – many of them located in Tarin Kowt and the former Taliban southern stronghold of Kandahar – are seeking visas to relocate to Australia with their family members. About a dozen former aid contractors and 195 contracted ¬security guards are also seeking asylum but have been told they are not eligible because they were not direct employees of the Australian government.

Appalling outcome.

Somehow, somewhere over the last 20 years, the Australian concept of a "fair go" has been lost whether it be dealing with those who assisted Australian forces in Afghanistans, Australians leaving overseas during a pandemic or even now Australians living in different states to most of their family.

 

[madrooster]

The halved cap is continuing until the end of October. I suspect the government does not plan to formally announce it for backlash reasons. There is going to be a very large amount of offloading in the coming 1-2 weeks. Qatar has started already...

 

[Flashback]

The halved cap is continuing until the end of October. I suspect the government does not plan to formally announce it for backlash reasons. There is going to be a very large amount of offloading in the coming 1-2 weeks. Qatar has started already...

Yes, as you know my colleague has suffered from this for a flight in just over a week. Qatar, paid one-way J. Cancelled.

 

[PineappleSkip]

Qatar, paid one-way J. Cancelled.

Not rebooked?

BTW My expat Kabul friends got out couple of days ago.

cheers skip

 

[jakeseven7]

I just don’t understand why they are continuing to build any of these quarantine facilities now…. What a waste of taxpayers money, unless they are preparing for the next pandemic?

 

[Mattg]

I just don’t understand why they are continuing to build any of these quarantine facilities now…. What a waste of taxpayers money, unless they are preparing for the next pandemic?

I guess there is an expectation they will continue to be used for some time. The government has said that unvaccinated travellers (and presumably people who test positive after arriving) will still need to quarantine for the foreseeable future, at least this gives an alternative going forward to inner-city hotels.

The real question for me is why the first new quarantine facility is only starting to be built 17 months into the pandemic.

 

[jakeseven7]

I guess there is an expectation they will continue to be used for some time. The government has said that unvaccinated travellers (and presumably people who test positive after arriving) will still need to quarantine for the foreseeable future, at least this gives an alternative going forward to inner-city hotels.

Be much easier just to allow vaccinated only passengers to come to Australia and put in home quarantine…. Waste of money.

 

[levelnine]

Be much easier just to allow vaccinated only passengers to come to Australia and put in home quarantine…. Waste of money.

Not really. It is going to be extremely difficult to verify the accuracy of vaccination status from large parts of the world (eg anywhere corruption is rife). And it is going to take a long time for the whole world to be vaccinated. Therefore, in the meantime you need to have quarantine for people coming from high risk locations.

 

[mviy]

There’s also the legal question as to whether it would be legal to only allow vaccinated Australians to return home if the vaccine is not mandatory for citizens in Australia.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

There’s also the legal question as to whether it would be legal to only allow vaccinated Australians to return home if the vaccine is not mandatory for citizens in Australia.

Going on past action it might well be legal. We know the BioSecurity Act can ban Aussies coming back outright (eg India), so putting a ban on unvaccinated Aussies returning is not too much different. The minister would need to satisfy the other elements of the Act - for example the measures would need to be the least intrusive possible etc etc.

 

[Pushka]

There’s also the legal question as to whether it would be legal to only allow vaccinated Australians to return home if the vaccine is not mandatory for citizens in Australia.

But living here and arriving into Australia are two different concepts. We require a negative covid test prior to arrival and stop those who are positive. Given how they've banned Aussies et Al from exiting I'm sure they can find some plausible law. And that would be a very good thing.

 

[louie-m]

Be much easier just to allow vaccinated only passengers to come to Australia and put in home quarantine…. Waste of money.

Trouble is that not everyone has a home in which to quarantine or even a home which is suitable for quarantine, particularly non-Oz based Aussies or eg PR visa holders arriving for the first time. I don't know what criteria would be allowed for home quarantine but I would guess you would need to be the only occupants of the property and it would need independent access (so no units with lifts or doors opening onto common areas for example). I'm (grey) nomadic and am quite sure that I wouldn't be able to find a caravan park which would take us and even if they did we'd need to empty the loo and we'd be unlikely to have people around who could deliver things we needed. Even getting essentials like foodstuff on arrival would be difficult. I doubt we could stay with friends or relatives. So unless my tenants leave at just the right moment (in which case we'd be returning to a unit with no furniture or utensils etc), we'll be returning to hotel quarantine no matter what. If we can find a flight to get back to Oz that is!

 

[jakeseven7]

Trouble is that not everyone has a home in which to quarantine or even a home which is suitable for quarantine, particularly non-Oz based Aussies or eg PR visa holders arriving for the first time. I don't know what criteria would be allowed for home quarantine but I would guess you would need to be the only occupants of the property and it would need independent access (so no units with lifts or doors opening onto common areas for example). I'm (grey) nomadic and am quite sure that I wouldn't be able to find a caravan park which would take us and even if they did we'd need to empty the loo and we'd be unlikely to have people around who could deliver things we needed. Even getting essentials like foodstuff on arrival would be difficult. I doubt we could stay with friends or relatives. So unless my tenants leave at just the right moment (in which case we'd be returning to a unit with no furniture or utensils etc), we'll be returning to hotel quarantine no matter what. If we can find a flight to get back to Oz that is!

Howard springs for all the exceptions

 

[louie-m]

Howard springs for all the exceptions

That'll be fun in Jan or Feb!

 

[mviy]

People may have to make a declaration that they have somewhere suitable to do home quarantine on return or that they will be away for an extended period at least initially.

 

[Pushka]

Trouble is that not everyone has a home in which to quarantine or even a home which is suitable for quarantine, particularly non-Oz based Aussies or eg PR visa holders arriving for the first time. I don't know what criteria would be allowed for home quarantine but I would guess you would need to be the only occupants of the property and it would need independent access (so no units with lifts or doors opening onto common areas for example). I'm (grey) nomadic and am quite sure that I wouldn't be able to find a caravan park which would take us and even if they did we'd need to empty the loo and we'd be unlikely to have people around who could deliver things we needed. Even getting essentials like foodstuff on arrival would be difficult. I doubt we could stay with friends or relatives. So unless my tenants leave at just the right moment (in which case we'd be returning to a unit with no furniture or utensils etc), we'll be returning to hotel quarantine no matter what. If we can find a flight to get back to Oz that is!

Yes this is definitely true. Way back in March last year when home quarantine was all that was needed, my nephew flew back from France and a cabin in a park was hired for two weeks and food brought to him. Had a verandah for fresh air. Very rustic and pretty much isolated. Worked well.

We won't be able to stay in our apartment but we do have a separate shack that we would live in. We would stock it up before we left and be self sufficient for two weeks. I did read the SA criteria being two hours away from the airport I think it was. We would also arrange to drive the car to the long term car park and not use any other transport.

 

[Seat0B]

There’s also the legal question as to whether it would be legal to only allow vaccinated Australians to return home if the vaccine is not mandatory for citizens in Australia.

given current form, I’d say they don’t care and would just implement this anyway and say “don’t like it? Take legal action then. Medical advice. Keeping Australians safe. BS, BS, BS.”

 

[drron]

There’s also the legal question as to whether it would be legal to only allow vaccinated Australians to return home if the vaccine is not mandatory for citizens in Australia.

Why not.Australia has had a requirement for having a yellow fever vaccination if coming from a country with high case numbers of yellow fever.In fact most countries have had that requirement.Here is the list from 2016.
https://www.who.int/ith/2016-ith-annex1.pdf?ua=1

 

[PineappleSkip]

IIRC that is for visitors. When I showed my yellow book to an AQIS guy a while ago (well years now) about what they do with citizens who come back without a cert. He said they get a mild lecture and a pamphlet.

BTW the extension of the truncated caps appears to be crippling inbound capacity even from what it was before.

Cheers skip