Stranded Australian

There are now over 40, 000 Australians who have been stranded abroad by the Australian Government during the COVID crisis. Help us to #removethecap for #strandedaussies https://action.amnesty.org.au/act-now/protect-the-right-of-stranded-aussies

[strandedaustralian]

Australia’s COVID response violates human rights

Are you aware of the current arrival caps on flights into Australia and the subsequent impacts on stranded overseas Australians due to the COVID crisis? When COVID hit, Australians overseas were told to “shelter in place”. Some remained overseas because they had family, stable jobs, housing or rental leases that they couldn’t just drop at a moment’s notice. No one knew at a time how long COVID would last, or how serious it would be. As Australians citizens, they knew it was their human right to be able to travel back into their own country when they needed to. But this right is now being violated by the Australian Government.

The world sees the Australian response to COVID as exemplary. But the only reason they can brag about their pedestal they’ve placed themselves on top of, is because they have built the pedestal on the backs of tens of thousands of Australian citizens they have abandoned overseas and placed in precarious positions. The Australian Government enforced arrival caps, which dictates how many people can enter the country each week. For airlines, the arrival caps have meant that planes are running at a reduced capacity and must prioritise first class passengers to stay afloat. For the individual, it means that they must either buy a first class ticket or risk not being able to travel into Australia. Until May 2021, airfares into Australia from around the world now cost up to 20x the standard price. There are now over 40 000 Australian citizens who have been stranded overseas for 9 months, unable to afford the first class airfare and having their economy or business class flights cancelled instead. There are dozens of Facebook support groups for these stranded Australians. Every day they talk about how they have lost their jobs and have no support from the country they are in, and no support from Australia. They talk about having to take our their life savings, start gofundme pages, or take out loans in order to afford a ticket home. They talk about how they get to the airport, after packing up their entire lives, only to be told at check in that their flight was just cancelled. They talk of how they are homeless. Their children miss school. They miss the birth of new children or miss the opportunity to say goodbye to a loved one who is dying. They talk about having suicidal thoughts. They talk about being unable to sleep and spending every waking minute in anxiety.

The assistance provided by the Australian Government is not only inadequate, but also now overwhelmed with the announcement that arrival caps will now be halved starting 15th of January. Australians back home show ignorance and intolerance, looking to biased media depictions of those stranded and join in the fear mongering. We are looking for media attention for our struggles, and for individuals and organisations to help join in the struggle to get us back home. We are hoping you can lend your voice to ours. Please sign the Amnesty International petition in my description. If you are an Australian, please sign the ALP petition to get us home.

[strandedaustralian]

If you’re upset about Novak not being allowed into Australia, you’ve not been paying attention

THIS. THIS is the thing the global community decides to pick up on and highlight Australia’s inhumanity about. A privileged tennis player who was allowed into the country last year, despite publicly flaunting covid health and safety by organising a tennis tournament, while over 40,000 stranded Australians (including myself) were not allowed back into their home countries. A privileged tennis player who is spending a short amount of time in the same hotel where asylum seekers have been forced to spend years in detention, with zero media coverage. People are saying that this incident will highlight the abhorrent way that Australia has treated its own citizens during COVID (#strandedaussies) or asylum seekers for decades. It won’t. People will move on and forget. I’ve seen non-Australians praise the Australian Government (do even a second of Googling to see how corrupt Prime Minister Scott Morrison is, not just through COVID but his entire career in politics), and I’ve seen tennis fans defend Novak Djokovic (he expected privileges because he received them last year. Your ability to hit a ball does not mean you get more rights than other people). This is more than tennis. There are more important things than tennis (and this is coming from someone who adored the tennis, who attended 3/4 grand slams, played competitively - until 1200 tennis players and their entourages were allowed into the country last year for the Australian Open before actual citizens were, while actual citizens died trying to get back into the country. And almost every. single. one. came in without question. Imagine what good they could have done with their positions by raising awareness of the double standards? Stranded Australians might not have died, might have been home, might have been able to see their families for the last time, if the predatory class had a moral backbone. So before you rush to defend Novak, or the Australian Government, take in the big picture. And don’t look away when the issue passes on. Stranded Australians will still be stranded, asylum seekers will still be locked up, and Novak will still be earning millions of dollars regardless of what happens.

[strandedaustralian]

Djokovic gets Aussie Open vaccine exemption

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic said on Tuesday he would defend his Australian Open title at Melbourne Park this month after receiving a medical exemption from getting vaccinated against COVID-19.

Since March 2020, onshore Australians have been telling stranded Aussies that they simply should have “come home sooner”. Pray tell, how does one “come home sooner” when the official advice was to seek shelter and bunker down, when flights cost up to 20x the original price because the government has put restrictions on how many people can enter the country, when you pack up your entire life and sell your house and ship your pets back to Australia and then have your flight cancelled at the boarding gate, when you get vaccinated with the only vaccines available in the country you’re living in but those vaccines are “approved” in Australia - but non-citizen anti-vaxxers can enter the country TWICE on exemptions. This isn’t a “public health” decision. This is money-driven. Pure and simple. This is driven by a government who don’t give two shits about their overseas citizens, or even what the value of holding an Australian citizenship means. This is driven by a docile and complicit public who spent two years telling their fellow overseas citizens to “rot and die overseas” and calling us diseased, while in the same breath throwing enormous tantrums when they couldn’t host football games. This is driven by celebrities who care more about themselves, money, and fame than they do about human rights. This is driven by a media frenzy who continues to spread moral panics, further stoking the fear of the public. I’ve tried to be somewhat restrained in my posts on Tumblr (as opposed to my other social media), but I am beyond the point of furious. Every single day I wake up, I hate Australia a little bit more. Today, the Australian public screams to the high heavens about the cost and queues of covid testing and how unfair it is that Novak Djokovic is allowed an exemption to the Australian Open. Where the fuck were you last year?! A year ago today, I was stranded in London in between my second and third flight cancellations back to Australia. I paid 3x the price of a normal flight to get back and then paid an extra $3000 for mandatory hotel quarantine (all for “public health” - but please, continue to whinge about spending $10 on a covid test). I watched as the government said there wasn’t room for me to come back (or 40, 000 other stranded aussies) but they found room for 1,200 tennis players and their entourages for the Australian Open. I watched as the onshore public told me to “shut up and stop complaining” because I was jobless, broke, depressed, but they cheered as the tennis went ahead. You accept the standard you walk past. Australians don’t know a fraction of the pain they inflicted on stranded aussies. But you were silent for too long, and now you get a small taste of what it’s like to have the burden of public health placed on you, to be valued less than a non-citizen celebrity. And I can’t say I give a damn.

[strandedaustralian]

If you’ve been believing the biased media coverage, then you’d be forgiven for thinking that Australia has been “the envy of the world” during the COVID-19 pandemic. But if you dig beyond the self-congratulating attitude, you’ll figure out the costs of that so-called enviable position. Tens of thousands (at this point, now hundreds of thousands) of Australian citizens have been stranded overseas for almost two years now. While every other country fought to bring home their overseas citizens when COVID hit, Australia left them to die overseas. Maybe their actions could be understandable or considered reasonable if they had shut their borders tight for everyone. But that hasn’t been the case. While stranded Australians become jobless, homeless, suicidal, catch COVID and die waiting to come home, Australia has let in hundreds of non-citizen celebrities and sports people. They held the Australian Open in 2021 (on a personal note, my third flight was cancelled into Australia while 1200 sports players and crew waltzed in without issue) and intend to hold it again in 2022, while Australians are STILL stranded.

But the hypocrisy and inconsistency doesn’t end there. While stranded Australians are jumping through all sorts of hoops to re-vaccinate with Australian-approved vaccinations (I just donated to this one last month, where James Carter has been stranded in Russia and has gotten vaccinated but has to fly to Serbia to get re-vaccinated with a different vaccine that will allow him into Australia - https://www.gofundme.com/f/8ugdpd-help-get-james-home ), loop holes are being found for Novak Djokovic so he can make the Australian Open. 

I’m exhausted, frankly. Since when does your ability to hit a ball dictate the amount of human rights you deserve? Why do onshore Australians get to live life “normally” and enjoy hosting celebrities and sports players and competitions while they disproportionately place all the sacrifices of COVID on their citizens who have been stranded overseas for two years? I loved the tennis. I played it competitively growing up. Friends would know not to try to contact me during Australia’s “Summer of Tennis” in January because I would be glued to my TV. I watched it with my mother’s side of my family and it became a strong connection for us. I’ve travelled to different countries to attend 3 of the 4 grand slams. So I know better than most how much joy and passion tennis can bring. But you are seriously disturbed if you think sport is more important than someone’s life, in this case, tens of thousands of peoples’ lives. We are not “all in this together”. Stranded Australians don’t have the luxury of “chilling out, living normally, and watching the tennis”. They are fighting to survive. 

[strandedaustralian]

As Australia's border reopens, I'm nervous about returning home — but not because of COVID

Australia may be starting to reopen its borders, but after months of yearning to come home, I find myself nervous about the prospect of returning. I wonder how I can sit at Christmas or Easter lunch knowing the person passing the salt thought it was reasonable to leave me in the wilderness during an international crisis, writes Rebekah Ison.

A brilliant article today that perfectly encapsulates what so many returned and still-stranded aussies are feeling. For a country that loves to claim sole ownership of “mateship” it was the only country for the majority of the pandemic that abandoned its own citizens overseas. When onshore citizens were not cheering on the ever-restricting border bans, they were silent and apathetic to the depression, anxiety, homelessness, desperation, and death of their own citizens left abroad. Not just ‘trolls’ and strangers on the internet, but sometimes our own families or people we considered close friends. Those certainly don’t sound like the actions of a country that prides itself on ‘mateship’.

[strandedaustralian]

So you’re thinking of moving to/visiting Australia? Don’t.

The international media has largely depicted Australia’s COVID response as something to be envied. You could be forgiven for being in awe of a country with low cases of COVID (if you can put aside the fact that they are geographically isolated, which already gave them a leg up in their ability to manage the pandemic). But are you aware of the costs of this response?

Do a quick search on Google, Facebook, or Twitter for #strandedaussies and you will find that this country that prides itself on ‘mateship’, on not turning their backs on their friends, on looking out for each other when times are at their absolute roughest, was the first and only country in the world (now recently joined by New Zealand) to abandon their citizens overseas for 19 months (and counting), blocking off their ability to return home and rendering them jobless, homeless, without visas and healthcare, still having to pay taxes in Australia, and for some, even leading to death and suicide. All the while, non-citizen celebrities, sports people, and politicians moved in and out of the country freely.

So what does this have to do with future tourists and migrants to Australia? Thinking of moving to Australia? Don’t. Unless you enjoy the idea of never seeing your overseas family again, or enjoy saying your last goodbyes as they die via Zoom. While it was always harder for people to enter Australia than it was to leave, Australia recently increased the requirements needed to leave - effectively trapping people within Australia. There were many stories of people being who, upon being told that their family overseas had suffered tragic events and had weeks (at most) to live, had their exemptions to leave Australia denied. Even though it was brought up time and time again that people leaving Australia does not impact COVID rates within Australia. Or they were unable to get their parents and family members into Australia for important events - births, sicknesses, deaths. You can search for #parentsareimmediatefamily to see the advocacy work of thousands of Australians within Australia who could not bring their parents into the country because the government did not consider parents close enough family to be allowed into the country (although, mind you, Natalie Portman was able to bring her parents into Australia). Many Australians took for granted that they could see their family and have their support networks throughout the pandemic. This was an unprecedented event that was taxing in every way possible; support networks were more important than ever. And so many migrant families were cut-off from this vital source of support when they needed it the most.

Thinking of studying in Australia? Don’t. You can also look up #internationalstudentsaustralia to see the thousands of students left in limbo overseas for 19+ months as they continue to pay educational fees, have their studies forcibly terminated by Universities, and pay rent on student housing they can’t live in. Several students have died by suicide as they cannot see a way back into Australia. Universities rely a LOT on international students to make them what they are, to add to their prestige and their global standings. They have been forgotten and ignored during Australia’s COVID response. You are brilliant, and you deserve better than Australia.

Thinking of visiting Australia? Don’t. From a moral standpoint - why financially support a country that treats its own citizens like trash? But it didn’t just treat citizens like trash, it treated anyone living outside of Australia as a COVID-carrying biohazard. The government, the media, and the public dehumanised them, vilified them, abused them, actively told them to “die overseas”. They called for the international borders to slam shut entirely, to cut themselves off from the world. Until, of course, their small business and tourism started to falter and they necessarily needed to open up international borders and suddenly beg tourists (the exact same people they had abused not a moment ago) to come and revive them. Demand better from Australia and vote with your money. I have hope that, one day, Australia will be a more ethical country, one that you would be proud to visit and financially support. But its current behaviour should not be condoned.

So yes, they kept their COVID cases low. But their response was an extreme end on the opposite spectrum to those governments that had incredibly high COVID cases and a lot of deaths. There is a middle ground needed. However, the majority of the Australian government and public did not think a middle ground existed - they believed it was better to sacrifice their overseas citizens, their migrant families, their overseas workers, and their international students for an indeterminable amount of time, while onshore Australians soaked in the glory of being considered globally to have ‘the best COVID response’. They hosted the Australian Open, countless American/British/global celebrities, packed stadiums full of sporting spectators the entire way through the pandemic, and held comedy and music festivals - all things they considered were worth more than the lives and wellbeing of others. They called said people who had family overseas weren’t “true Australians”, they called stranded Australians “traitorous mutts” for having the audacity to leave the country, and they actively wished death on all those outside of Australia’s borders - all while ignoring the fact that these overseas connections are what makes Australia what it is. The key theme running through this post is: if it happened once, it can happen again. At any time in the future, Australia may ignore and infringe upon your human rights. The government and public decided that their freedoms and their frivolity were worth more than human life. Now they want your tourism dollars, your brightest students, your highly skilled migrant workers back. Australia does not deserve your money, your skills, your love; it does not know how to love in return. The relationship with Australia is one-sided. I hope one day it will change but for now, I implore you to #boycottAustralia.

[strandedaustralian]

Reconnect Australia on Twitter

“#strandedaussies stand in silence outside @AusHouseLondon today to mourn 18 months of border closures 💔 #ReconnectAustralia https://t.co/jwaAjoZa4C”

So proud of the stranded Australian community in London making a stand and taking to the media over the weekend. 18 months into the COVID pandemic and things have only deteriorated for the Australian citizens still abandoned by their country across the world.

Arrival cap numbers into Australia are now the lowest they have ever been. Singapore Air has stopped flying into Australia entirely, resulting in mass cancellations. Stranded Australians have reported experiencing up to 14 flight cancellations since Australia implemented its cruel arrival caps. Of course, that hasn’t stopped thousands of non-citizen sports players, elite business people, and celebrities being allowed in without issue.

This is a problem resulting from every level of government, across the political spectrum. Both left and right wing politicians at federal and state levels have failed stranded Australians.

Every day I log onto Facebook and look at the dozens of stranded Australian groups from around the world. I see dozens of messages of people desperate and hopeless. For the last 18 months, I have seen people post about having flights cancelled, about having to watch their loved one die or their funeral via Zoom because they can’t get a flight back into Australia, about being told by the Australian embassies in their country that they can’t help them and they should go find a homeless shelter, about contemplating ending their lives because they can’t find a way out. I watch these brave people tell their stories to the media, trying to find a grain of empathy or consideration for human rights in the Australian Government. Sometimes the media pressure helps and they get a prioritised flight home. But they do so at the cost of incredible abuse by the Australia public. Maybe the tide is starting to change over the last few months, but you look at the comments section of any news footage or article about stranded Australians and they are filled with hateful words, of xenophobia, of a complete lack of empathy that runs counter to the so-called ‘mateship’ lauded by this country.

The “success” of Australia’s pandemic response was based on the sacrificing of it’s citizens, of it’s human rights, of it’s morals. Stranded Australians are exhausted but they continue to fight. As a former stranded Australian myself, I fight alongside you.

[yes-knope]

Did y’all know there are 40,000 stranded aussies overseas and have been for a year since ‘Rona but we’ve let in a wave of celebs like Chris Pratt (yup our beloved Andy), Idris Alba, Natalie Portman, Ed Sheeran, Zac Efron, Melissa McCarthy....to name just a few....totally amazing of them to come (and leave more aussies stranded) and stimulate our economy for us aw

Just gonna edit this to put in a link for everyone to read

[strandedaustralian]

More than 900 Australians have died from COVID-19 – but there's been a hidden toll

Thousands of Australians remain stranded abroad and unable to easily get home. For more than 50 who were in that situation, the consequences proved fatal.

New data have revealed that 54 Australians so far have died overseas due to COVID. At least 3 of them were trying to get home, having registered with DFAT. However, many many stranded Australians don’t register with DFAT 1) because DFAT is entirely, completely, unbelievably useless, and 2) they want to come home, but they think other stranded aussies need more help than they do. So a greater proportion of these 54 deaths may be from stranded Australians.

I can’t stop wondering what they were thinking in their last days. Did they see Australians cheer as the Australian Open players and their entourage were able to enter and leave the country easily? Did they see Australians froth over the new celebrity to enter the country’s shores? Did they experience abuse from these same Australians when they tried to get back home? How many flights did they have cancelled?

Last week, someone who had lived in Australia throughout the pandemic told me that there was “no other option” to the closed borders and that Australia was “lucky” because they were able to drink in bars and sit in cafes throughout the pandemic. I’ve always half-joked that Australians would sacrifice the lives of others just so they could go watch the footy or drink outside, but these recent stats have proved it true. The selfishness is phenomenal and continues to rupture what little relationship I have left with this country I was born into and have meaningless citizenship with.

This isn’t a “hidden” toll of COVID. Australians, by now, know what the price of living with the unobtainable “Zero Covid” is - it costs the lives and wellbeing of their fellow citizens stranded overseas. And it is a price that the government and the public are more than willing to have others pay for them.

My heart goes out to the families of those stranded aussies who were left to die overseas by Australia.

[strandedaustralian]

In today’s trash-fire round up of Australia’s COVID response...

- Beyond Blue, an organisation providing many services for mental health including a phone line for depressed individuals, hung up on a stranded Australian who expressed suicidal thoughts after the arrival caps to Australia were halved. Onshore Australians continue to believe that stranded Australians are all irresponsible backpackers living off government benefits - nothing could be further from the truth. The Australian Government has abandoned their citizens across the world and dumped their responsibility and welfare on other countries. They haven’t made vaccines available for them, they haven’t given them access to any benefits, their ‘repatriation flights’ cost more than the average flight price and are also prone to being cancelled when the arrival caps change, and they will not give them mental health support. All while many many of these stranded Australians continue to pay taxes to Australia.

- Caitlyn Jenner and Katie Hopkins were granted exemptions into Australia to be featured on the TV show ‘Celebrity Big Brother’. Stranded Australians are outraged once again that non-citizen celebrities are valued more in the community than their own citizenship. They are doubly distressed that such an abhorrent individual as Katie Hopkins was allowed in. In fact, after flouting quarantine rules, Katie Hopkins has since been dropped from Big Brother and will be sent home. But the pain remains for stranded Australians over whom she was prioritised.

- Over 130,000 people have called out Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk for displaying hypocrisy by advocating for (and then gloating about) halved arrival caps into Australia and then swanning off to the Tokyo Olympics to make an Olympics bid for Brisbane for 2032. Something that could have been done via Zoom, in the same way that she forced thousands of families to say goodbye to dying loved ones and attend funerals via Zoom because she wouldn’t let them into Queensland or into the country.

Yes, stranded Australians are aware that the federal government are heavily implicated in the failure to return stranded Australians. They are certainly not blameless in their decisions to delegate quarantine spaces to the states and then sit back and do absolutely nothing. However, as the states now have control of quarantine arrangements, it would be in error to remove blame likewise from the state leaders. The continued low arrival caps that have restricted entry to Australia for stranded Australians and reuniting partners and families for the last 18 months are the result of government ineptitude and callousness at every level.

I believe internationally, other countries are beginning to see the holes in Australia’s COVID response. They are seeing that the pedestal it put itself on was made of human rights violations and a disdain for human life. I can only encourage you, if you are not in Australia, to see this country for what it really is. Hold it to account, do not hold it in high esteem.

[strandedaustralian]

Sign the Petition

Deny Annastacia Palaszczuk an exemption to leave Australia to attend the Tokyo Olympics

The QLD state premier just advocated fiercely for halved arrival caps in Queensland (even though the numbers allowed in per week were already incredibly small and were not meeting the demand of stranded Australians wanting to return).

When she was granted her wish, she then openly rejoiced about her oppression of stranded Australians on social media.

THEN she increased the price of hotel quarantine for those returning. Airlines have already been feeling the pinch of unsustainable mostly-empty flights to Australia for the past year and responded to the halved caps by increasing flight prices by at least three times the already-exorbitant price. The increased hotel quarantine fees are making returning home even less possible for those who have been trying desperately for the last 16 months.

NOW she boasts about being able to go to the Tokyo Olympic games. One rule for her, and one of the rest of us. This is not democratic. Sport is not essential. She is deliberately demonising, dehumanising, attacking stranded Australians, partners and families apart, and migrant families and telling them that their lives, mental health, and wellbeing is worthless - and is worth less than her unnecessary holiday to Tokyo. If you are impacted by these inhuman border caps, or even if you’re not but you want to by an ally and make noise for what is right, sign this petition and let her know Enough is Enough.

[strandedaustralian]

The already extremely low arrival caps into Australia have just been halved. Social media is a flurry of panicked stranded Australians waiting to see if their flights have been cancelled. Some have given up hope that they will ever see their families again. Some have given up hope in living altogether. My heart is heavy and I feel extremely powerless. This is not democracy. This is not human rights.

[strandedaustralian]

Queensland and Victoria push for 'massive reduction' in international arrivals

Victorian and Queensland push to dramatically slash the number of international arrivals allowed into the country in the wake of quickly growing outbreaks linked to hotel quarantine.

Beyond cruel, beyond hypocritical. These two states have time and time again pushed to allow celebrities and sports people into the country while simultaneously pointing the finger at stranded Australians and separated loved ones for any COVID “outbreaks” in the country. The QLD Premier has openly gone to social media to celebrate the entry of international film stars to Queensland. She also recently received a considerable amount of negative attention when she mentioned on Twitter that she received the Pfizer vaccine predominately so she could travel to Tokyo to discuss the 2032 Brisbane Olympics bid.

And the VIC premier is no better. He allowed 1200 tennis players and their entourages into the state for the Australian Open earlier this year, with promises that the quarantine hotels they ‘found’ for this event would later be used to get stranded Australians and others back home. This was a blatant lie; in fact, soon after the Australian Open, Victoria closed it’s border to all international arrivals. And yet both of these state premiers now have the audacity to call for cuts to international arrivals. This decision would have devastating impacts on the Love Is Not Tourism community, Parents are Immediate Family community, and Stranded Australians. It is nothing but hypocrisy to only allow the borders to open when you, a government official in a position of power, benefit from it.

Speaking personally, I was both a Stranded Australian and forcibly separated from my partner. I remain connected to those communities on social media and I have spent every day for the 15 months reading the heart-wrenching stories of hundreds of thousands of people who have been impacted by Australia’s human rights violating bans. I’ve felt helpless as I watch these people express desires for suicide because they can’t get home, I’ve watched partners break up with no clear end to their physical separation, I’ve watched people desperately plea for ideas on how to get home immediately because their family is dying back home, I’ve watched as they have been told by onshore Australians that they are worthless, that they should die overseas, that it’s their own fault for having family or connections overseas, that they aren’t Australian anymore, that the football and tennis are more important than the lives of their fellow citizens abandoned abroad. These are only a few of the stories I’ve heard.

I’m constantly struck by the new lows that Australia reaches, the lack of heart, the cruelty, the hypocrisy. I’m stunned by the silence and the complicity of the public as they let this continue, unwilling to wear masks or get vaccines but more than willing to condemn their fellow citizens or their migrant communities to mental ill-health or death. I don’t know how to enact change and it pains me of every second of every day.

[strandedaustralian]

Tragic reason for man’s hotel quarantine hunger strike

Victoria’s Acting Premier James Merlino has blamed Western Australia for an Aussie citizen stuck in hotel quarantine in Melbourne being denied an exemption to be by his dying mum’s side.

THIS is what Australia has become. They say they are protecting Australians, but at what cost? Is this a price you are willing to pay, Australia? Your humanity? Your morality?

James Turbitt, an Australian man living overseas, rushed back to Australia to be with his dying mother. He had to jump through all sorts of red tape and paperwork in order to get an exemption to see his mother, but it was too late. She died and he now spends two weeks in mandatory hotel quarantine alone in his grief. And has to spend $3000 for the privilege. He is now protesting against his abhorrent treatment from the government by going on a hunger strike.

I will not hold back - I am DISGUSTED and APPALLED by the Australian Government who enforces these policies, the media who feeds them, and the public who demands them. While the eligible population in Australia refuses vaccinations, the people stuck overseas or with connections and family overseas are paying the price. While onshore Australians lament about not being able to go on holiday, people are watching their families die over Zoom because of the draconian border policies in place. While the rest of the world opens up, onshore Australians are content in their xenophobic, racist, small-minded lives. They epitomize the saying: “if I’m okay, then it doesn’t matter if you’re not.”

For 15 months now, stranded Australians and separated families have lived in COVID-striken countries around the world (some have even died overseas). They have been vilified and denigrated by onshore Australians and media. They have lost all citizenship rights. They have seen their flights cancelled, or paid up to $100,000 just to get themselves and their family home again. They are locked in small hotel rooms for two weeks despite being vaccinated and testing negative - while community cases of COVID, and incoming politicians and celebrities are allowed to quarantine at home. And all this time they are told it’s for “the greater good”. While “the greater good” has been going about life as normal, attending football games, hosting world surfing competitions and the Australian Open. Tell me, why do people like James have to never see his mother again just so you can go to watch sport?

This comes mere days after the Australian Prime Minister travelled to the G7 summit, where he was only an observing member not a participant, and then travelled around on a pub crawl and researching his family history. He has since returned and been able to quarantine at home. All while preaching how dangerous the outside world is for Australians and how they should remain locked up until 2022.

I stand in solidarity with James and all others impacted by this dictatorship masquerading as democracy.

[strandedaustralian]

Another celebrity misuses their privilege to gain access to Australia, while there are still thousands of Australian citizens stranded across the world and separated from their loved ones, their parents, and their children.

Neil Patrick Harris is only the most recent in a long line of celebrities and sports people who have been able to circumvent Australia’s “impassable” borders. Also included are Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Alan Cummings, Zac and Dylan Efron, Rita Ora, 1200 tennis players and their entourages, Natalie Portman AND her parents, Ed Sheeran - just to name a few.

When the Australian Government says the borders are closed, they mean that they are only closed to the average person. Those with privilege, with wealth, with status can come in and out of the country as they please. All while stranded Australians continue to be bumped off flights that cost exorbitant amounts of money, all while partners and family members are applying up to 70 times for an exemption to enter Australia to be with their loved ones, all while those inside Australia are unable to leave.

How is this fair? One rule for the rich, and one for the average. And perhaps what hurts more is that not a SINGLE one of these celebrities and sports people has spoken up about stranded Australians or the border issues. They use their privilege to benefit themselves and then they continue about their lives unaffected. I don’t know about you, but just because someone can kick around a ball well or is a decent singer, that doesn’t mean that they get more human rights than the rest of us, or that their lives are worth more than the rest of us.

Things could have changed by now if people with power and privilege had spoken up about the human rights violations of the Australian Government. But celebrities are too busy benefiting from the current arrangement to do anything. And so we continue, 15 months now into stripping the rights of the average Australian citizen. We may not have power in our voices, but we continue to fight. Please speak out and fight with us.

[strandedaustralian]

Third Australian dies of Covid in India while caring for elderly parents

Sunil Khanna, 51, from Sydney’s west, died in New Delhi late in April. His brother is now desperately trying to bring their father to Australia

So, while the rest of the world removed their citizens from India and provided rescue flights, Australia abandoned their citizens and left them to die. Not all citizens, of course - the cricket players who received an exemption to leave Australia and play in India were moved to the Maldives and then transported back home. The rest of those citizens, the average citizens who do not play professional sport and who have been stranded for over a year now, were left to fend for themselves.

THIS is Australia. A country that cares more about sports than human rights, morality, and so-called mateship. A country that sings about how its citizens come from all over the world and how supposedly multi-cultural it is, and then turns their backs on those citizens when they go to care for family they had left overseas when they moved to the ‘wonderful land of Oz’.

As other countries begin opening up, begin taking holidays, begin recording how incredible proportions of their population are vaccinated already, Australia continues to ignore the world, ignore its global citizen community, and ignore the stranded Australians who are now dead because of its wilful negligence.

I have heard from other communities affected by Australia’s harsh and unethical border bans, such as partners apart/love is not tourism and international students Australia, that they will be leaving Australia permanently to seek their basic human rights elsewhere. I hope that other migrants do the same, to go somewhere where their skills, their relationships, and their livelihoods are valued. Maybe then Australia will learn the price of shutting itself down - the deaths of stranded Australians abroad does not seem to affect the politicians or the public. Maybe the complete crumbling of the economy will shock them into realising the long-term effects of telling your citizens that they mean nothing outside the confines of the borders.

[strandedaustralian]

Sammy J is an Australian comedian who has spent the last year writing and filming topical and hilarious videos about COVID. But, as someone who was stranded overseas, this one made me cry. It is accurate, factual, heartfelt, and deeply saddening. It hits the nail on the end, discussing the atrocious prices of flights to get back into Australia, the double standards for celebrities and sports people who can fly in and out of the country on a whim, the criminalisation of stranded Australians who try to return from India, and the many legitimate reasons Australians are overseas right now. It is masterful and humanising.