Here in this post, I will cover a few points that you as a reader will get to learn some facts and information related to Australian International Borders.

Topics I've covered are:

1. Is it really true that borders are going to open by the end of 2021?
2. Canada, the United States of America, Germany, Ireland, UAE opened up their borders, why didn't Australia? Was it a wise decision?
3. How many Australians and Temporary Residents including international students are stuck outside?

Unlike any other country, Australia has had the strictest border closure since March 2020. This policy sounded very promising at the beginning to suppress the impact of covid-19 from the country, however, this has separated both permanent and temporary residents from living their life and living with their families/relatives/guardians.

A week ago, news broke out that Australia is finally opening its international borders in November 2021 which is next month. Is that good news? of course it is, but the question residents always ask to confirm their doubts is that will they reallyyyyy open this time? or will this again be another blind shot? Because looking at their track record in these 18 months since March 2020 they always failed in providing a proper solution to this problem.

Well, we know that eventually, they will open it, however, their systems, offices, officials, chairs, and political prowess related to the management of international borders, and their school of thoughts about it remained quite ludicrous.

According to the news from this source, here the PM informs that borders will open from the next month to the Australians. Well, I really hope and pray this happens since it has been a very long time. We've grown old on this event.

Unlike other countries, why Australia didn't open its borders for so long?. It's because of poor management and due to the failure on the vaccination front. According to world data, Australia delivered 23 doses per 100 people, whereas the rate in other countries like the UK and the US compared differently. Uk with 106.1 doses per 100 people, 92.9 doses in the US, and 73.3 in Germany.

Australia is one of the worst performers in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), though Japan and New Zealand hold lower vaccination rates per 100 people.

A huge issue has been due to the inability in access to vaccines. Sources say that Australias' initial actions related to securing vaccines were very good. Moreover, they were one of the first to put an order with AstraZeneca. However, during the rollout from AstraZeneca, confusion lingered relating to the stocking of vaccines. Consequently, the order was held back by the concerned authorities due to the lack of clear information about the public demographics.

Later, they had issues around rare blood clotting disorder associated with AstraZeneca jab. Due to such cases, the situation related to vaccination became worse.

A survey was conducted and about one-third of the Australian population mentioned two reasons for not taking the vaccine. Due to the side effects that it can bring on health and lack of urgency given the low infection rate throughout the country. On the other hand, young Australians were ready to take the jab, however, they had no access to a vaccine.

State and the federal governments argued over each other to play the blame game for the delays. This is what I read, two state governments - New South Wales and Queensland - have accused the federal government of failing to provide certainty over how many vaccines would be delivered. This, in turn, has slowed down scheduling appointments. There are reports of patients across Australia having difficulties booking slots.

As of today, the guardian tells that there are about 45,000 Australians that are stranded overseas who need government help to return to their home. If these numbers convey only Australians, then imagine how many temporary residents are stuck outside Australia. As these numbers are huge and may vary due to circumstances, another source informs that the DFAT(The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) is not going to provide numbers of how many Australians are stranded overseas in different countries, no reason given.

Earlier, Australia had implemented plans to bring back only Australians by asking them to register with DFAT, however, due to the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan issue the process of bringing Australians was left behind. PM, Scott Morrison informed that they evacuated some 4,700 Australian authorities from Kabul, however, failed to provide the number of Australians that were left behind. I feel sorry if people are really left behind. Anyway, it’s something Australias' concerning border management is good at or too overprotective or far-out cautious.

News sources confirm that not many airlines are in operation to and from Australia and vice versa. But there are a few but with limited capacity, however, those flights are able to carry 110 passengers due to the rules that are put in place by the officials. Seriously???

Well, we can imagine now that the amount of turmoil caused to the Australians that are stuck overseas is huge. Let me talk about the temporary residents, skilled entrants, and international students. Although this category doesn't fall under the priority list as per the Australian government, these individuals have paved their way into the country with huge investments, both time and money.

Some FYI's if you don’t know about this category of individuals. Almost all of these fall under the temporary resident category who travel abroad to get foreign education and work experience. Unfortunately, thousands of them under this category were put in great distress by the Australian government due to their strict international border closures regime.

Before the pandemic started, these innocent and unlucky students and temporary residents traveled to their home country or some other country but failed to return to AU as the closure of International borders was initiated in March 2020. Consequently, their visas expired. These individuals are left in limbo with huge education loans, rental expenses for their homes/luggage that is in Australia, limited or no income or job, career stagnation, mental and emotional turmoil.

The majority of the victims are students because of the inability to complete their abroad education, however, temporary residents who were granted visas such as graduate 485 or skilled visas are also the sufferers as they paid huge money for the education already for example $45,000 AUD on average. Nearly 14,000 TR Graduate 485 visa holders are stuck outside Australia, according to Department of Home Affairs figures.

So, what have we understood so far from this article? Australian authorities who manage the border activities and high-level officials who have the prowess and responsibility acted irresponsible and unpredictable with the timelines to open international borders to everyone.

Thank you for reading.