A LAKE Macquarie family that has been stuck in the UK for five months has called on the Federal Government to lift the passenger cap on flights returning to Australia.
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Deanne and Paul Vowels and their five children had set out for a four week stint in the UK in March, two days before the travel ban came into effect.
Four weeks turned into five months as they decided to stay with family and wait for their rescheduled flight on August 16.
Now, they are among more than 18,000 Australians abroad trying to return home due to passenger caps on international arrivals.
"We were ignorantly, naively waiting for our flights, five months after we scheduled them," she said. "On August 14, two days before our flight, I got a text saying it had been cancelled.
"It wasn't that it didn't fly, it was because they were only flying 50 on their plane. They appear to be bumping off every single person in economy. They are a business - I am not mad at the airlines for putting on their 50 top-paying customers.
"The thing I am cranky about is there are already checks and balances for when we come back into the country to keep the nation safe. And I 100 per cent cent agree with that and the travel restrictions.
"But the cap restriction is keeping Australians out."
States requested limits on international arrivals so hotels could cope with the mandatory two-week quarantine program.
It is expected the limits will remain in place until October 24.
The family's flight has been rescheduled for November - but they were told by the airline there was a "99 per cent chance" they wouldn't be on that either due to the government cap. A business class flight to Australia next week would have cost them $113,000 in total.
Mrs Vowels, a school teacher at Wallsend, said they had initially been offered repatriation flights.
"It meant we would lose our original fares," she said. "Also to have done that, we would have had to pay $2500 one-way for each member of our family. There are seven of us. So $17,500... We just didn't have that type of cash in the bank.
"We are working class. We don't have residual income.
"But we had family support here. Despite being a little bit crowded and difficult and stressful, we decided to wait it out with family until we could get our original tickets back.
"We didn't even consider it would be an issue coming back on that date. Then we realised that thousands of others are in the same situation."
Mrs Vowels was also becoming concerned about their children's education.
"When everyone was home-schooling it was fine, they were doing lessons," she said.
"Now that Australia has gone back to school, my children don't really have a direction or lessons. So they are missing out.
"I am considering enrolling them in school here if we don't get home soon."
The family had agonised about whether to take the trip to the UK.
At the time, the advice was to "reconsider travel".
"It was the hardest decision we had to make," Mrs Vowels said.
"We considered it. We told the travel agent we were nervous about it, but they said we would lose our $10,000 in flights if we cancelled.
"Two days later, the travel ban was in place - that's when airlines would have given a refund."
Mr Vowels, a former Ambulance Officer of the Year, was born in the UK, but is now an Australian citizen. The trip to the UK was in honour of his parents' 50th wedding anniversary, and would have been the first time his family was under the one roof in years.
For four months, the family has been living with his brother - who has eight children of his own.
"We are in a household with 17 people," Mrs Vowels said. "Feeding 17 people for breakfast, lunch and dinner costs a lot of money. We are racking up money on our credit card now, which we have never done before."
So far, they had managed to get by using up their sick leave and stalling their mortgage payments. But with their "hardship relief" agreement ending next month, the family is concerned if they can't get home and back to work soon they could lose everything.
"I agree that we need to pay for our own isolation when we get back, that's fine. We don't want to be a burden on the government," she said. "I just don't understand the need for the passenger cap. Before we even get on the plane we have to have a negative COVID test. When we get back to Australia we have to have two negative COVID tests before we are released. Is the cap really necessary?"
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Mrs Vowels said they were "stretched to the absolute max" -financially, emotionally, mentally and physically.
"Why doesn't the government have our back at this time?," she said.
"I saw the Australian cricket team got an exemption and can freely come to the UK and back.
"We are not asking that borders open for everyone. We are asking that borders be opened for Australian citizens."
A Senate inquiry has heard 27,000 Australians have registered overseas, with 18,800 of them wanting to come home.
Most were in India, the Philippines, South Africa and Vietnam, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade official Fiona Webster said.
Dr Webster said limits on international arrivals posed a "significant challenge" for Australians overseas.
"We can only work within the quarantine capacity," she said.
DFAT had tried to help vulnerable Australians or those in exceptional circumstances, but had limited sway with airlines, she added.
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International arrival cap won't be lifted, PM says
A cap on international arrivals will not be lifted despite the fact thousands of Australians stranded overseas are desperate to come home.
More than 18,000 Australians abroad want to return but exorbitant airfares and the government cap are preventing them.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his primary focus was managing risks in hotel quarantine.
"That's why I am not lifting the caps," he told reporters in Canberra on Friday.
"I want to stress that 4000 Australians are still returning every week, every single week, and we've got tens of thousands of people who have been going through quarantine as well from overseas."
Mr Morrison said the NSW government processed most incoming travellers, but were now focused on containing coronavirus outbreaks across the state.
State and territory leaders all agree that needs to be the immediate focus, he said.
The passenger limit will be reviewed every two weeks.
The prime minister hopes there will be more room to move once Victorian and NSW case numbers come down.
"But right now, on the balance or risk, on the balance of risk we need to keep those caps where they are."
He has asked senior ministers to develop a suite of measures to better support Australians stranded abroad.
"We acknowledge that some of them are in some difficult circumstances," Mr Morrison said.
Cabinet minister Mathias Cormann defended the government's cautious approach.
"We did urge Australians early on, quite strongly, to return if they wanted to return, and a lot of Australians did return at that time," Senator Cormann said.
"Right now we are in a situation where globally there are about 260,000 new cases of coronavirus every day."
Senator Cormann said there were practical, logistical limits to how many people could be managed through hotel quarantine.
"All of these things have been factored into maximising the possible in-flow of returning citizens and residents," he said.
"But of course these things are always under review.
"We will always try and do as much as we possibly, practically can to facilitate the return of those Australians who want to come back."
States requested limits on international arrivals so hotels could cope with the mandatory two-week quarantine program.
The current limits will remain in place until at least October 24.
More than 27,000 Australians have registered overseas, with 18,800 of them wanting to come home.
Most are in India, the Philippines, South Africa and Vietnam.
More than 371,000 Australians have returned home since March 13.
The federal government has organised 64 repatriation flights , with 13 of those from India.
The foreign affairs department has tried to help vulnerable Australians but has limited sway with airlines.
Nearly 400 people have been given emergency loans to help cover the cost of airfares.
Anita Beaumont
Anita Beaumont is a health and general news reporter at the Newcastle Herald.
Anita Beaumont is a health and general news reporter at the Newcastle Herald.
