蜜芽传媒

A ban on Australians travelling abroad will be lifted from next month, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced. Since March 2020, Australia has had some of the world's strictest border rules - even banning its own people from leaving the country. The policy has been praised for helping to suppress Covid, but it has also controversially separated families.

Nicky Fraser, a British-born Australian citizen, moved there more than two decades ago and is now settled with a family.聽In order to visit her mother in the UK, she had to sign a 'stat dec' and agree to stay out of Australia for three months, which meant being separated from her children and even missing her daughter's birthday. She says she thinks that Australia has handled the pandemic reasonably well, but that the policy on people leaving was harsh, and meant that thousands of people haven't been able to visit family outside the country.

Photo: A nearly empty terminal at Sydney International Airport, September 2021 Credit: EPA