The important thing the world has learned from all previous pandemic that pandemics change life on this planet completely. We cannot take anything around us for granted as we don’t know when it’s. All going to change. The impact of a pandemic is not only limited to the health of people but it also has various impacts on how we live, how we work, how we conduct different tasks in our life, how we interact with others, etc., in short, we can say that it changes the pace of our lives completely. Today, we will talk about Extension in Australian travel ban due to Covid-19 and how it’s affecting Australia in many ways.
Similarly, the Pandemic coronavirus has affected every walk of life. It has taken hundreds of thousands of lives and has infected millions of people from different part of the world. But the story of its destruction doesn’t end here. The businesses, education, travelling, social interactions, trade, etc. nothing is the way it was before pandemic hit us.
Many countries took precautions to stop the further spreading of the virus, limit the numbers of infected people and prevent other people from getting infected. The countries that didn’t take precautionary measures serious at the initial stage of the pandemic faced severe problems and it got very difficult for them to control the numbers of infected people.
Australia is one of the few countries that took precautions at the right time and got successful in saving its people from the coronavirus to a very good extent. One of a very good precautionary measure that it took is to impose a travel ban on the right time. It’s almost more than 9 months now that Australia is exercising travel ban and border restrictions. In this article, we will talk about Australian travel restriction and how it’s affecting Australia in many ways.
Australian travel ban
As a measure to stop or limit further spreading of the virus in Australia, it has imposed a travel ban and border restriction since March 2020. Under these, no one is allowed to enter the Australian border until or unless he or she is an Australian permanent resident.
Here is all you need to know about these restrictions:
- No one is allowed the borders of Australia except:
- Australian citizens
- Australian permanent residents
- Eligible New Zealand citizens
- Immediate family of Australian permanent residents or nationals
- Have a special exemption from Australian travel restrictions
- Australian nationals and permanent residents cannot leave Australia unless they are exempted from the restrictions.
- Temporary visa holders are expected to return to their homeland if suitable travel arrangements can be made and border condition in their homelands allows that.
- Australian Temporary visa holders who are currently outside Australia cannot enter Australia unless they are exempted from the restrictions.
- All the people entering the Australian border must undergo a mandatory quarantine period of 2 weeks
Extension in the Australian travel ban
As we have discussed above that Australia has imposed a travel ban since March 2020. This travel ban was initially for high-risk countries only. But as soon as the virus reached and started spreading rapidly in the other parts of the world, Australia restricted travelling to and from all parts of the world.
Still, as the condition of the coronavirus is out of hands in many parts of the world Australia has extended the travel ban. According to the new announcement, Australia will be continuing the travel ban until March 2021. This will mark as a complete year of the travel ban and border restriction in Australia.
This travel ban has affected its nationals, permanent residents, international students and temporary visa holders in many ways and the news of extension in it is definitely troubling news for many. If you are in need of consultation or guidance then you can consult with The Migration, these are the best Immigration experts in Australia, they will help you out in your visa & immigration issues.
How the travel ban affected Australia
The travel ban imposed due to coronavirus has affected Australia in many ways. Let’s look at different sects of people that got affected the most by this travel ban
Australian residents and permanent residents
Australian residents are unable to leave the country unless there is an exemption. This has created many problems for Australian. As they are unable to conduct their businesses the way before, also trade has been affected a lot by the border closure. It has also affected education and other travel plans of Australians.
Temporary visa holders
Australia has the largest number of international migrants. A large sum of people moves to Australia on a temporary or permanent basis on various visas like subclass 485, TSS visa, etc. All these people got affected in the pandemic situation but temporary visa holders got the worst effects of it.
Many temporary visa holders are stuck in their homelands and cannot resume their employment and other activities of life in Australia. And similarly, many temporary visas holders are in Australia right now and cannot return to their countries due to lack of travel means and border conditions in their countries. Many of these people are running out of finances and time granted by the visa subclasses they hold.
International students
Education is the sectors that got affected by the pandemic situation the most. International students are a vital part of their economy and society. But due to the current situation, many are stuck offshores and cannot come to Australia and continue their academic activities there. And the students who are currently in Australia are facing many problems like the closure of institutions, lack of part-time jobs due to lockdowns and business closure, tight financial conditions, etc.
This is also expected that Australia will lose a large number of international students in this pandemic. But recently a batch of international students have returned to an Australian institution and it is hoped that the situation will get better soon for international students in Australia.
This was all about Extension in Australian travel ban due to Covid-19, new updates in these contexts and how it has affected Australia in many ways.