Model Belle Lucia blasts the ‘double standards’ of ‘rich’ tennis stars flying into Australia

Australian mum, 25, stranded in the UK with her baby son blasts the ‘double standards’ that allow ‘rich’ tennis stars to fly Down Under while 40,000 Aussie citizens are stuck overseas

  • Belle Lucia is an Australian model living in London with her young son
  • Her visa is about to expire but she is unable to fly home due to reduced flights
  • She has slammed ‘rich’ tennis stars arriving in Melbourne for the Australian Open
  • Belle blasted the preferential treatment afforded to athletes over other citizens
  • Australia’s cap on international arrivals have wrought havoc throughout COVID

An Australian mum stranded with her baby on an expiring visa has blasted the federal government’s ‘double standards’ which allow ‘rich’ tennis stars to fly Down Under while thousands of the nation’s citizens remain stranded overseas.

Belle Lucia, a model who has 1.3million Instagram followers, lives in London with her 15-month-old son but her visa is about to expire, meaning she will no longer be legally allowed to live or work in the UK.

The 25-year-old has been unable to secure a flight home due to caps on the number of people who can fly into Australia since the pandemic hit the country in early 2020.

On January 8, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that the number of permitted international arrivals would be slashed for New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, dashing hopes for the 40,000 Australians languishing in limbo abroad. 

Australian model Belle Lucia (pictured) has slammed the ‘double standards’ of the federal government that allow ‘rich’ tennis stars to fly Down Under while close to 40,000 citizens are stranded overseas

The 25-year-old mother-of-one has been unable to secure a flight home to Australia due to caps on the number of people who can fly into Australia since the pandemic hit the country (pictured with her son)

The 25-year-old mother-of-one has been unable to secure a flight home to Australia due to caps on the number of people who can fly into Australia since the pandemic hit the country (pictured with her son)

The 25-year-old mother-of-one has been unable to secure a flight home to Australia due to caps on the number of people who can fly into Australia since the pandemic hit the country

The reduction was made in a bid to stamp out the UK’s new mutant strain of COVID that appears more transmissible than the original strain, although numbers of infections have dropped sharply in Britain since. 

Like countless families separated by border closures, Belle’s parents and siblings in Australia have never met her infant son.

After Qatar Airways cancelled her upcoming flight due to arrival caps, Belle vented her frustration on Instagram, taking aim at tennis players jetting into Melbourne to quarantine ahead of the Australian Open which kicks off on February 8.

‘So if you’re a rich tennis player no problem getting into the country. If you’re an Australian citizen with an almost expired visa with a baby, then no,’ she wrote.

‘Also, it’s mandatory to do two weeks hotel quarantine but a lot of tennis players get practice time outdoors which is another double standard.’

After Qatar Airways cancelled her upcoming flight due to arrival caps, Belle vented her frustration on her Instagram story

Belle also slammed Australia's high commissioner to the UK George Brandis (pictured) for flying home for a holiday to Queensland while tens of thousands are stranded

After Qatar Airways cancelled her upcoming flight due to arrival caps, Belle vented her frustration on her Instagram story, taking aim at tennis stars (left) and politicians (right)

In a video uploaded hours after her comments, Belle (pictured) thanked followers for their messages of support but insisted there are countless others in worse situations

In a video uploaded hours after her comments, Belle (pictured) thanked followers for their messages of support but insisted there are countless others in worse situations

Like countless families separated by border closures, Belle's parents and siblings in Australia have never met her infant son

Like countless families separated by border closures, Belle’s parents and siblings in Australia have never met her infant son

Last week, Kazakh tennis player Yulia Putintseva uploaded an Instagram photo of herself in hard hotel quarantine holding a placard that reads: ‘We need fresh air to breathe.’ 

The No.28 in the WTA rankings was begging to be allowed out to train in the lead-up to the year’s first Grand Slam tournament, which was plunged into chaos after players on incoming flights from Abu Dhabi, Doha and Los Angeles tested positive for the virus.

Belle also slammed Australia’s high commissioner to the UK George Brandis for flying home for a holiday to Queensland while tens of thousands are stranded.

In a video uploaded hours after her comments, Belle thanked followers for their messages of support but insisted there are countless others in worse situations.

‘It’s really quite sad. There’s a lot of Australians who are homeless because their flights have been cancelled, flight after flight, and now they can’t even afford the next flight because it’s so ridiculously expensive,’ she said. 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk