E-Paper
India raises return of students with Australia
Research and modelling done by the Australian government has led to a four-phase pathway for the country’s Covid-19 response and progression out of restrictions. Once enough Australians have been vaccinated, the government will begin reopening and students will be able to return in phases three and four, Marise Payne said.
India on Saturday raised with Australia the issue of problems faced by Indian students wishing to travel to Australian campuses because of existing Covid-19 restrictions and asked for the issue to be addressed as soon as possible.
Students from India have faced problems since last year in travelling to several countries, including China, the US, Canada, Germany and Australia. This issue was raised by external affairs minister S Jaishankar with his Australian counterpart during the first India-Australia 2+2 dialogue of defence and foreign ministers.
Jaishankar said in his opening remarks at a media interaction following the meeting that he specifically took up with Payne problems faced by Indian students in Australia and “those wishing to go to Australia as well as the Indian-origin community” there.
He added, “I urged that the difficulties faced by the students due to travel restrictions be sympathetically addressed as soon as possible.”
Replying to a question on the same issue, Jaishankar said the government had heard a lot from the students and that “their frustrations, their feelings are completely understandable”.
He said the matter was discussed in some detail and Payne had “shared with me what is Australia’s thinking about when students would be able to come”.
Payne described herself as an “enthusiastic proponent” of welcoming the “much-loved Indian students back into the Australian education system as soon as it is possible”, and noted that there are currently more than 60,000 Indian students in her country.
Research and modelling done by the Australian government has led to a four-phase pathway for the country’s Covid-19 response and progression out of restrictions. Once enough Australians have been vaccinated, the government will begin reopening and students will be able to return in phases three and four, she said.
“There is shared desire on both sides to see that travel resumes between our countries as soon as it is safe to do so and I look forward to being one of the people at the airport to welcome the first arrivals of Indian students coming back to Australia,” Payne said.
Jaishankar noted that India had been having “some problems” regarding the travel of students with “some other countries”. He said, “We had [problems] initially with the US, we are still having some issues with Canada. So I do want the students of the country and [their] parents...to know that it is something we take as a very high priority and take up very, very vigorously with our foreign partners.”
