Australia’s travel restrictions on India: status and impact

The pandemic has impacted the world majorly and countries are constantly trying to adapt and work to revive the crashing economies. They are also implementing necessary restrictions to prevent further spread of the COVID-19 virus. However, one industry that has taken a massive hit is the travel industry and the process of reviving the sector is turning out to be very challenging. As new variants and strains of COVID emerge, further travel restrictions have become the new norm.

With the rapid spread of the Delta variant in India, several countries have imposed a travel ban on temporary residents and visitors from India which has left employees, students and families stranded in host and foreign countries. India and Australia have for long been bolstering their diplomatic, strategic and trade ties, and education and tourism are a significant component of it.

Australia imposed a travel ban on India in April 2021, reducing its flights from India by 30 per cent. Such a ban has brought with it major consequences for students and family members, especially. Many Indian employees who undertook a short travel were forced to separate from their family members with no option of going back to India or arranging for their families to come to Australia. These restrictions led to the separation of parents from their children for months. However, repeated requests on “compassionate and compelling circumstances” grounds the Australian government issued travel exemptions, in limited numbers to facilitate travel of Indians to Australia.

Students who returned to India over break, and newly admitted students in Australian universities are having to attend 4 a.m. online classes impacting on the quality of learning. Additionally, several students who have rented rooms and vehicles for their stay in Australia have had to face unnecessary expenditure in this crucial time of economic constraints that people are facing.

These restrictions are likely to dissuade future students from pursuing higher education in Australia. Akshay Chaturvedi, the founder of a foreign study facilitation agency says that the impact of such restrictions has caused a drop from 20% to less than 5% amongst Indian aspirants applying for Australian universities at present. However, Barry O'Farrell, the Australia’s High Commissioner to India has stated that such restrictions were inevitable in the interest of health and safety of Australians, but Australia will restore the faith of the Indian students in Australia as a preferred destination for education. The launch of the pilot programme to allow international students into the country in small numbers, totalling 800 per month has proven to be a positive step in that direction. While certain exceptions are being made to the travel restrictions, there still lies a long and complex road ahead in accommodating return requests of many other students who must rightly be back in Australia.

Shri Khyati Reddy