Ex pats want same support to come home

Expats desperate to get home from countries beyond Australia are asking for the same support and options Kiwis across the Tasman are receiving.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced a two-month pause of the trans-Tasman travel bubble, with the Government working closely with airlines to ensure enough flights are available in the next seven days, before passengers are required to enter a managed isolation facility (MIQ).

But expats navigating the saturated MIQ booking system and difficulties with travel restrictions believe the Government should be doing more to help them come home.

The Press spoke to a desperate Canterbury family trying to return from Indonesia. The family did not want to be named because of the danger around speaking publicly in the country, but said they had been stuck overseas without significant support.

Having moved to Indonesia and invested their life savings in a business, the family had hoped Covid-19 would ‘‘blow over’’, but as it spread throughout the country they were severely financially impacted and planned to come home.

For the Canterbury family, the situation in Indonesia seems like a never ending rollercoaster. Family spokesperson Harriot (not her real name) said thousands of businesses had closed, people were starving with no help with utility bills or vehicle payments, and riots were happening. The was no government support.

Foreigners were being taken to deportation centres for not wearing their masks correctly.

‘‘We are not afraid of being here due to Covid-19. We are afraid of what the officials will do to us and how we can continue to feed our family.’’

Harriot said her family and other Kiwis in the same situation were being forced by both the Indonesian and New Zealand governments to ‘‘go it alone’’.

With Indonesia blacklisted from transiting through the only countries that offered flights to get them home, the family were stuck.

Watching the New Zealand government’s response to repatriating Kiwis from afar after the closure of the trans-Tasman bubble was difficult for Harriot, who wants more support and options put forward to help families like hers to come home.

Harriot believed having a governmentappointed support person checking on families and providing updates on travel conditions would be beneficial.

The Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), which runs MIQ, was looking at options to improve the system, joint head of MIQ Megan Main previously said.