Mr Thakur’s flight was finally booked for December 4,but on Monday morning a sense of anxiety woke him early. He spent the day by his phone. “I kept refreshing my Twitter feed all day long,waiting for the announcement to happen,” he said. “There was that feeling of inevitability.”
The newscame on Monday evening:Australia’s border,set to open on Wednesday to 160,000 international students and 50,000 skilled workers for the first time since it closed in March 2020,would be shut for another two weeks while health authorities gathered more information about the new COVID-19 strain.
Universities Australia chief executive Catriona Jackson said the delay was “challenging” for the 130,000 higher education students stuck offshore who were anxiously hoping to return to Australia for semester one next year. “It’s important to acknowledge the incredible resilience of those who have waited patiently for up to two years to resume their studies on campus,” Ms Jackson said.
Stories of stress and heartbreak have reverberated around Mr Thakur’s friendship group:one of his mates had gathered all his relatives this week to say goodbye after two years of false starts;he was receiving his PCR test results when he heard the news.
Others,who forked out up to $8000 for flights,are unsure if that money will be wasted or they will have to negotiate new flights at further cost. Mr Thakur said he paid five times typical prices for his ticket.
Students whose visas are close to expiring are particularly distressed,fearing they could run out before they land on Australian soil. Then there’s the mental health impact of months of ongoing uncertainty.