Australian borders reopened after almost 600 days

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Australia reopened its international borders on Monday after being closed for almost 600 days due to the corona pandemic. At the airport in the metropolis of Sydney there were already emotional scenes in the early hours of the morning, sometimes in tears, relatives hugged their arriving family members. Australia introduced one of the toughest border regulations in the world on March 20 last year because of the pandemic. Almost all trips to the country were stopped.

For the past 19 months, Australians have only been allowed to travel abroad with permission. Families were separated, tens of thousands of Australians stranded abroad. Only a few received an entry permit and then had to pay thousands of dollars and be in hotel quarantine for 14 days. These conditions have now been lifted for Sydney and Melbourne, and vaccinated Australians can come and go again without any conditions.

The Australian airline Qantas, which had most of its fleet on the ground for over 18 months, was also delighted. “It’s wonderful to see that Australians can now meet again with their loved ones after such a long time,” said Qantas boss Alan Joyce about the resumption of international flights.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison spoke of a “great day for Australia”. He wrote on Facebook that Australia was now “ready to go”.

However, over a million foreign residents remain in Australia without the opportunity to see their friends and relatives in other countries. The changed travel rules mostly only apply to Australians. And some states with comparatively lower vaccination rates continue to adhere to strict and expensive quarantine rules.

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