Aussies stuck in Manitoba for 10 months, hope Friday flight lifts off

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This article was published 17/12/2020 (2117 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After a one-month visit with family in Portage la Prairie turned into a 10-month stay, an Australian family hopes Friday’s flight will be the ticket that finally gets them home.

“We have never looked so forward to spending 42 hours in transit with a toddler in our lives,” said David Jeffries with a laugh.

Jeffries and his wife Kate arrived in Manitoba on Feb. 26 after flying in with their 20-month-old son, Mitchell, from Perth, Australia. They wanted to care for David’s mom, who had been diagnosed with late-stage cancer in January.

After their arrival, the COVID-19 pandemic closed borders and resulted in multiple flights being cancelled.

On March 17, the Australian government suggested people return home as soon as possible, but David wasn’t concerned.

“We didn’t think too much about it because we had tickets booked and were leaving on March 29,” he said. “We thought we would be able to just hop on that flight. Three days later, the world came crashing down.”

The Canada-U.S. border closed to non-essential travel on March 20 and has not reopened. The Australian border closed, and the family’s flight was cancelled. David said while he is a Canadian citizen, Kate and Mitchell are not, meaning if the family had left Canada, they would not be able to return.

“Initially when our flights got cancelled, we sort of accepted that was going to be the world’s situation for the short term, because there were so many unknowns about the virus,” said Kate.

They are not the only family trying to return home to Australia. Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trades said around 38,000 people are registered as being overseas and wanting to return home.

David said Australia does not have a federal plan to bring home the thousands of stranded Australians. Each of its six state is responsible for assisting residents in their attempt to return. With limited space at quarantine hotels, some consulates have given people addresses to homeless shelters and suggested they create GoFundMe pages to raise money for their flight home.

The couple have been paying their mortgage in Australia while stranded in Manitoba, and they have also been paying to stay at their rental home in Portage. While David has been able to work remotely, Kate’s maternity leave ends in February and she said she fears she’ll lose her job if they don’t return to Perth in time.

On a government website, Australia says it is helping to arrange additional flights for Australians to return home, but “the number of government-arranged commercial flights depends on the number of people states and territories can quarantine in a given week.”

“It’s as if (Prime Minister) Justin Trudeau said to the provinces it is their responsibility to get Canadians home and we all know that didn’t happen,” said David.

Australia is still allowing people to return to the country, but there are limited flights to the country and only 35 people are allowed on each flight.

“Every flight we have booked has been cancelled. We’ve been unable to get home as a direct result of the government’s policy with these flight caps,” said Kate.

The couple is irked because Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said there is queue to return home and Australians are in the front of that queue. However, the country has allowed in athletes throughout the pandemic.

“While we’re very happy that cricket teams can come in, while we’re very happy the Melbourne Cup horse race can go ahead, while we’re very happy the Australian Open can go ahead… 10 months on, it should never have been a question of us or them. It should have been us, then them,” said David.

The couple hopes that after five cancelled flights, Friday’s flight will go ahead. They are scheduled to leave Winnipeg at 10:05 a.m., flying to Toronto, Montreal, Qatar, and finally Perth.

If they’re aboard the flight home Friday, they will spend Christmas in quarantine. However, David said being locked in a hotel room for the holidays is the “best-case scenario.”

kellen.taniguchi@freepress.mb.ca