The coronavirus outbreak has caused everyone around to world to protect themselves. For Australia, this meant implementing a travel ban for travellers from China and sending infected Aussies to Christmas island to be quarantined.
These are all reasonable measures (relatively speaking) to combat the coronavirus, but Scott Morrison’s travel ban had the unintended side-effect of preventing the 100,000 or so Chinese uni students from getting back to Australia in time for when classes start. However, this travel ban hasn’t stopped students from getting back into the country via a crazy workaround.
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Speaking to Chinese uni student and to sources in contact with Chinese uni students who are stuck in China, bypassing Scott Morrison’s coronavirus travel ban involves travelling to countries such as Thailand and Malaysia first before heading Down Under.
That’s because Thailand or Malaysia (among other countries) haven’t imposed bans on travellers from China and entry only requires a visa upon arrival. Since those countries haven’t been subjected to any coronavirus travel ban, students can then simply fly to Australia from there.
It’s such a roundabout yet technically possible workaround to the coronavirus travel ban that travel agents are marketing holiday packages for this sort of thing.
Now you might be thinking that this plan won’t work as border police will be thoroughly checking passports for people who may have been in coronavirus-affected countries and they’ll almost certainly pick up on the fact these Chinese uni students were in China. Well it seems like there’s actual method to this madness.
Since the incubation period for the coronavirus is about two weeks, Chinese uni students are staying in Thailand (or other ban-free countries) for 14 days or so before they fly to Australia. If they can show they’re fine after two weeks while also being outside of China, then there’s no reason why they can’t get back into Australia since it’s clear they don’t have the coronavirus.
For those still skeptical about whether this coronavirus travel ban workaround will work, my sources tell me that they know several Chinese uni students who have already made it back to Australia though some have been refused entry. Australian customs are handling this on a case by case basis so it remains to be seen how successful this plan ultimately is.
So there you have it, not even a travel ban can stop Chinese uni students from coming back so they can get to their classes on time. Never mind the coronavirus, getting good grades are far more important.
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