Australia will allow students from India to return to their academic institutions only when their Covid-19 vaccination program reaches a level that gives them confidence to do so.
Foreign Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday addressed with his Canberra counterpart Marise Payne the issue of restrictions on the return of students from India to Australian academic institutions.
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Payne later said the Australian government was following the model suggested by the Peter Doherty Institute of Infection and Immunity on the withdrawal of stops and travel restrictions imposed to contain the Covid-19 pandemic. “We are on track to vaccinate Australians to a level that will give us the confidence to start the kind of reopening that will allow students to return in three phases, and then the fourth phase will have a much more open environment for international travel and that will include students, ”the Australian Foreign Minister told reporters.
He said travel restrictions not only applied to students, but to everyone, including Australian citizens. She said even she and Defense Minister Peter Dutton would have to go through the quarantine procedure after returning to Australia.
Payne and Dutton were in New Delhi to take part in the first India-Australia 2 + 2 dialogue.
“There are still more than 60,000 Indian students in Australia. But I definitely understand the desire for those students and their families who are not able to be there to have that desire for experience on campus, life in the country and, of course, it is very difficult, ”he said.
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