Australia is tightening its already strict border policy to keep the coronavirus at bay. From mid-July, the government has decided that about 3,000 people a week will be allowed to come to the country on commercial flights, half less than is currently the case.
Australia has drastically restricted international travel during the corona crisis. Citizens and people with permanent residence permits are still welcome, but the border remains closed to foreign tourists. Travellers must be quarantined in a hotel for weeks after arrival.
This strict policy initially seemed successful. The country of 25 million has so far reported more than 30,000 corona infections and fewer than 1,000 deaths from the virus, far fewer than the 17,762 deaths reported by, for example, the smaller Netherlands.
However, the system began to crack more and more as the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus began to spread worldwide. He would have repeatedly ‘escaped’ from quarantine hotels, resulting in local corona outbreaks. As a result, almost half of the population is now in lockdown.
Meanwhile, there is growing criticism of the country’s slow vaccination campaign. Australia has less than 8 percent of adults fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, lagging behind many other Western countries. This may mean that the border has to remain closed for longer.
The further restriction of international travel is also a sensitive issue. “This is dramatic news for the more than 34,000 Australians still stranded abroad,” said a researcher from the human rights organization Human Rights Watch. She said Australia had gone further than other democratic countries with the travel quotas that affect its own citizens. “We must remember that all Australians have the right to return to their own country.”