Australian ambassadors sent to Heathrow airport to help civilians stranded in travel hats | Australia News

Teams of Australian diplomats are used Heathrow Airport To help Australians who are forced to camp at the airport.

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, more than 25,000 Australians overseas have now registered their intention to return home, but planes will not be able to access them due to the government’s strict international arrival caps.

The caps, introduced in July, tightened shortly to ease pressure on Australia’s mandatory hotel isolation system, which means only 4,000 passengers can enter Australia each week, with some flights limited to 30 passengers.

Frustrated airlines in hats are beginning to admit publicly They cancel tickets for the economy, and increasingly business class travelers, so they can use their limits for more expensive tickets and be profitable under the cap.

While hats apply to visitors from all over the world, the Australian High Commission in the UK has been forced to take further action to deal with the impact of hats as a large number of Australians are stranded in the country.

“The hats of international passenger runs have made it difficult to get home, but we are committed to making sure there is an Australian for every seat available.” The High Commission tweeted on Tuesday.

In a Facebook post, it stated The teams met with passengers Contacting airlines, airports and governments to locate unused spaces.

“If you need a board, flag them at Terminal 2 or Terminal 5,” the post said.

The presence of teams at the airport is as follows Pre-government advice to Australians to launch crowded campaigns Compensate for living expenses and pay for high class flights home.

Last week, The Perth mother of three posted photos online showing her children, Including a one-year-old child, sleeping in their coats on the airport floor. He said they slept there for three days because their flights home – which he said had been booked before the hats were introduced – were canceled.

The story follows Scores of stranded Australians contacting the Guardian Australia Many who went abroad in recent weeks with a valid exemption to visit a sick relative, whose return tickets have been canceled, are now facing an indefinite stay away from their families, jobs and safe shelters.

This week, the Australian Air Representatives Board, which represents airlines including Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines and Etihad, revealed that 140 planes landed in Australia in the first week of September with 26,000 empty spaces.

However, Bara’s managing director Barry Abrams underestimates the importance of the issue to the 25,000 Australians who have registered abroad with the Guardian.

He said the flight booking data of canceled tickets indicates that there are close to 100,000 Australians stranded abroad.

“We need to understand how big this issue is now,” Abrams said.

Abrams said a more drastic increase is needed to allow at least 100 passengers per flight, while the federal government, which implements caps for every city requested by state governments, has indicated that some state prime ministers may take a few more flights to help returning citizens. .

“It would not be good if one or two state governments created capacity pieces, if it only added to the crumbs of our current national capacity.”

Last Friday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he wanted to be “part of” the commitment of states to increase attendance capacity when the issue was discussed in the National Cabinet of Tasmania’s Prime Minister Peter Goodwin. Morrison has not yet outlined the details of how the hats will be increased.

On Friday, however, Goodwin told the Guardian that Australia was not in a position to help repatriate Australians because Hobart Airport could not take international flights. He said he expects federal support for infrastructure work to allow the airport to accept international flights.

The federal opposition renewed calls this week to introduce federal isolated solutions, citing specific facilities set up to repatriate Australians from Wuhan in the early stages of the epidemic.

Michael McCormack, the deputy prime minister in charge of hats, said earlier this week that “nothing is on the table” as the government seeks a solution in Kanda.

When Guardian Australia asked McCormack if he was considering federal isolation facilities or additional resources to enhance state isolation capabilities, a spokesman did not specifically mention this question.

On Friday, Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar al-Baker backed the prioritization of high-paying customer tickets, telling the ABC that “we have no choice but to increase the yield available”. He warned that the caps threatened the possibility of flying to Australia.

Citizenship legal experts have also raised Attendance hats are unconstitutional.

The hats will last until October 24th.