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by fpig 1875 days ago
How is this even an issue? I just can’t imagine many Australians going to India to work since it’s a much poorer country. Like, it’s hard for me to believe there’s more than 100 Australians who did that. And they can easily quarantine that many people. The article makes it sound like it’s a huge number of people they’d need to build facilities for which seems super strange.
4 comments

> I just can’t imagine many Australians going to India

It's Australia's 3rd biggest trading partner after China and the US, along with huge numbers of 1st generation citizens. It's more surprising the stated numbers of Australians over there are so low.

For one of the biggest exporters on Earth I'm always amazed at how sheltered Aussies are, many live in a bubble and have to be one of the most irrationally risk-averse people you can find.

Taiwan has been able to competently deal with covid for a year despite being right in the epicentre of it all, there's no flight caps and the only restrictions are for tourists, most people quarantine at home. In comparison, Australia still can't manage to take in more than 50 people on a flight, nor more than 6000 a week into the entire country while the cost for a family of 4 returning to the country often tops $40,000.

As a guide, over 12000 people are leaving the country every week now, more than double than are allowed to come back, it has turned into flight bidding game amongst the richest who can afford to leave for holidays and easily come back paying quarantine costs with no regard for the needs of anyone else who works or studies overseas. Nearly two thirds of the people flying into the country now are not actually citizens, the flight cap doesn't change to accommodate this.

It's truly bizarre to watch most think the government has "handled this well" and general polling supporting these actions. The whole system is breaking down at a fundamental level and yet the only metric Australians seem to judge it by is infection numbers.

Once the dust settles it will more look like pushing women and children out of the way as you rush for the exits of a burning building. I doubt anyone will look back with pride on decisions like this, it undermines the entire principal of citizenship and makes a mockery of signed human rights declarations.

Australia is a very popular destination for Indian expats.

> At the Australian Bureau of Statistics' 2016 census, 619,164 people in Australia declared that they were of ethnic Indian ancestry.[1] This comprises 2.8% of the Australian population

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Australians#Current_p...

I'm just going to respond to this comment since all are saying the same thing basically - the comment I replied to was implying something else, that Australians are working in India and weren't able to return when the government demanded it because they would have lost their jobs in India, which sounds like a legitimate reason to refuse to return, but also sounds like a group of people that's likely mostly imaginary.

I'm sure there's a bunch of Australians going to India for all kinds of reasons, I didn't mean to imply people from Australia never travel to India in general, but people who were visiting India could have returned when the government warned them to do so, and I assume the vast majority did, apart from covid-denying "you can't tell me what to do" types which I have little sympathy for.

Many Indians acquire citizenship abroad, get NRI status, and spend long visits in India with family. They have valid claims in both countries.
There are Australia permanent residents as well.