NSW, Victoria and Queensland will take India flights as children left stranded
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NSW, Victoria and Queensland will take at least one planeload each of returning citizens as soon as flights restart from India, where 173 Australian children are stuck without their parents.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison says repatriation flights will begin again from India from May 15.
Credit:Kate Geraghty
Direct flights into Sydney and chartered repatriation flights to Darwin were halted late last month through an order under the Biosecurity Act, when the number of cases in quarantine rose dramatically with the majority detected in people arriving from India.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that “vulnerable” citizens would have priority for seats on planes.
Australian officials justified the ban, under which Australian citizens who return home could be jailed, by citing the high rate of infections recorded in arrivals from India, which was putting the quarantine system under stress.
But United Nations officials suggested that the travel ban might violate Canberra’s human rights obligations.
Today, Mr Morrison said that the measure had worked to reduce the number of cases in quarantine “back to more manageable levels.”
“[We] will be at a level by May 15 to ensure that, as planned, we will be able to return to having those repatriation flights from India,” he added.
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Ctg Hefajat leader sued over rape
5 more activists held over recent mayhem
A rape case has been filed against Jakaria Noman Fayezi, publicity secretary of the recently dissolved Hefajat-e-Islam central committee, in Chattogram, said police.
A woman filed the case with Hathazari Police Station early yesterday, confirmed Abdullah Al Masum, additional superintendent of Chattogram police.
According to the case statement, the plaintiff became acquainted with Fayezi through social media in September of 2019.
In November, the same year, she came to Hathazari upazila where Fayezi rented a house for her to stay, the police officer said, quoting the case statement. Fayezi raped the victim many times over the next year, the statement added.