Australians stuck overseas 'abandoned' by their own country Australian citizen Mandeep Sharma feels utterly deserted by his government.
He is one of the 9,000 Australian nationals stranded in India right now, left to fend for themselves after Canberra this week banned all flights from the pandemic-ravaged nation until mid-May.
He has a wife and two daughters in Adelaide and fears their separation could drag on for months. Catching Covid in India is also a real risk.
The Australian government's flight ban was the latest hardline action taken to keep the virus out of the country. Infection rates are near zero, and Australia has had far fewer fatalities than most countries, thanks to strict border controls and quarantine measures.
Still, those policies have left many Australians locked out. The ban on Indian arrivals marked an escalation - the first time the country has stopped evacuations and blocked citizens from returning home altogether. It's intensified calls for more to be done to get Australians home.
Why can't citizens get in?
Prior to the pandemic, there were estimated to be about one million Australians living overseas. Many have come home in the past year, but many more have struggled to return.
Currently, around 36,000 nationals are registered for government help to fly home, but the true number of those who wish to come back is estimated to be much higher.
Australia became one of the first nations to close its borders in March 2020. Only returning nationals and residents were allowed in. Some exemptions were granted, including celebrities, sports stars and contract workers. Since April, it has also allowed travellers from virus-free New Zealand.
Those who returned were forced to undertake - and fund - a two week quarantine stay at hotels in state capitals. In the early pandemic rush, state governments agreed to take on the burden of running quarantine instead of the federal government, given the lack of national facilities.
About a month in, a problem emerged. The number of people returning home - mostly from New Zealand, the US and the UK- threatened to overwhelm the system. There were only so many hotel rooms available.
But instead of expanding the system - for example, adding a purpose-built quarantine centre - the government drastically cut back the number of plane arrivals allowed in each week.
(Adapted from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-56924188)
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