Foreign students cannot return to Australia, government says, citing shortage of Covid-19 quarantine facilities
- Foreign students are worth about US$25.3 billion a year to the Australian economy
- ‘There is a queue, and Australians are in the front of the queue,’ PM Scott Morrison said
Australia has since March closed its borders to all non-citizens and permanent residents in a bid to slow the spread of Covid-19.
“There is a queue, and Australians are in the front of the queue,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra.
Chinese students in Australia leave as coronavirus upends study
Australia caps the numbers of locals allowed to return home each week in order to minimise the risk of spreading Covid-19.
Once locals arrive, they enter hotel quarantine for two weeks.
Australia on Friday was on course to record a sixth straight day without any locally acquired infections. Australia has recorded about 27,700 Covid-19 infections and 907 deaths, far fewer than many other developed nations.
‘We’re like cash cows’: stranded Chinese students upset after Australia’s coronavirus travel ban
Educational think-tank the Mitchell Institute earlier this week estimated there would be 300,000 fewer international students, half the pre-coronavirus numbers, in Australia by June 2021 if border restrictions remained.
Australia’s most populous city, Sydney is expected to see a decline of more than 70,000 students, Mitchell Institute said.
Several leading universities have announced sweeping job cuts in a bid to reduce costs. In October, Morrison’s government said it will spend A$1 billion to support university research amid the fall in overseas students.
Australia’s universities hit by loss of ‘cash cow’ foreign students
Earlier this year, about 150,000 Chinese nationals were enrolled at Australian universities, making up around 11 per cent of the student population – a far greater proportion than in Britain and the United States. Some Australian universities rely on Chinese students for nearly one-quarter of their revenue.
The warning came after Morrison in April told foreign students to go back to their home countries if they were unable to make ends meet during the pandemic, adding they were not entitled to any welfare payments.
