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SYDNEY (REUTERS) – Australia will not allow foreign students to return as Canberra prioritizes the return of locals trapped abroad, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday (November 13).
Australia has closed its borders to all non-citizens and permanent residents since March in an attempt to curb the spread of Covid-19.
With foreign students worth around A $ 35 billion (Singapore $ 34 billion) a year to the Australian economy, Canberra hoped to allow foreign students to slowly return in 2021. Testing began earlier this year.
But with thousands of Australians wanting to return, Morrison said there are not enough quarantine facilities.
“There is a queue and Australians are at the front of the queue,” he told reporters in Canberra.
Australia limits the number of locals who are allowed to return home each week to minimize the risk of spreading Covid-19.
Once the locals arrive, they quarantine the hotel for two weeks.
Australia on Friday was on track to record a sixth day in a row with no locally acquired infections. Australia has recorded around 27,700 Covid-19 infections and 907 deaths, far fewer than many other developed nations.
The continued ban on foreign students deepens a financial black hole facing Australian education providers, with an estimated value of between A $ 3.1 billion and A $ 4.8 billion this year alone, Catriona Jackson, executive director of Universities, told Reuters Australia, earlier this year.
The Mitchell Institute’s group of educational experts estimated earlier this week that there would be 300,000 fewer international students, half the pre-coronavirus numbers, in Australia by June 2021 if border restrictions were maintained.
Sydney, Australia’s most populous city, is expected to see a decline of more than 70,000 students, the Mitchell Institute said.
Several leading universities have announced job cuts in an attempt to cut costs.
In October, the Morrison government said it will spend A $ 1 billion to support university research amid the drop in foreign students.
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