The outrageous way Australian university is getting around coronavirus travel ban

REVEALED: How an Australian university is getting around the coronavirus travel ban by PAYING Chinese students to exploit loophole

  • Australian university offering to pay Chinese students $1500 to dodge travel ban
  • The ban stops those travelling from mainland China from coming into Australia
  • The Australian government extended travel ban on Thursday until February 29 
  • Western Sydney University said it would subsidise 14-day stay in a third country
  • Ban can be dodged by going via countries which do not have a China travel ban

An Australian university is getting around the coronavirus travel ban by offering to pay Chinese students $1500 to stay outside mainland China for two weeks. 

Western Sydney University told its international students on Wednesday it would subside the cost of airfares and accommodation to allow them to reach Australia ‘through a third country’.  

It comes as the Australian government extended the ban on those coming from mainland China until February 29, affecting an estimated 65,000 Chinese students. 

Travellers are pictured wearing protective face masks at Brisbane International Airport on January 29. Western Sydney University has announced it will subsidise its international students to get around the coronavirus travel ban

Western Sydney University (pictured) told its international students it would subside the cost of airfares and accommodation to allow them to reach Australia 'through a third country'

Western Sydney University (pictured) told its international students it would subside the cost of airfares and accommodation to allow them to reach Australia ‘through a third country’

The ban can be dodged though by going through a country which does not have a travel ban on those coming from China. 

Those countries include Thailand, Cambodia, the United Arab Emirates and Japan.

In the e-mail being circulated online this week, the university said the $1500 payment would be made after arrival in Australia.

‘We consider the Australian Government’s endorsement of entering Australia through a third country an important development, opening up the opportunity to arrive in time to commence study in Australia,’ the e-mail said.

The move has been hailed by the Sydney Student Representatives’ Council, which said universities capable of helping subsidise travel costs should be helping out.

‘The fact international students are paying $45,000 annually for tuition fees does not mean they should always pay more,’ the council’s general secretary Abbey Shi told The Australian.

Travel agents are taking advantage of the loophole in the travel ban by selling 14-day travel packages to go-between countries such as Dubai. 

In the e-mail being circulated online this week, the university said the $1500 payment would be made after arrival in Australia

In the e-mail being circulated online this week, the university said the $1500 payment would be made after arrival in Australia

One package included a stay in a four-star hotel, a personal guide and face masks.

On Wednesday, the Australian government confirmed it would be extending the travel ban from mainland China for another week until February 29. 

The decision was made by the national security committee of cabinet on Thursday as the number of infections and deaths in Hubei province, the epicentre of the virus, continues to grow.

Foreign nationals – excluding permanent Australian residents – who have been in mainland China will not be allowed to enter Australia for 14 days from the time they left China. 

AUSTRALIANS WITH THE CORONAVIRUS

NEW SOUTH WALES: 4 

January 25

  • Three men aged 43, 53, and 35 who had recently travelled to China are confirmed to have contracted the disease.
  • Two flew in from Wuhan while the other arrived in Sydney from Shenzhen, south China.
  • They are being treated in isolation at Westmead Hospital and are in stable condition.

January 27 

  • A 21-year-old woman is identified as the fourth person to test positive for the illness in NSW.
  • The woman, a student at UNSW, flew into Sydney International Airport on flight MU749 on January 23 and presented to the emergency department 24 hours later after developing flu-like symptoms.
  • She is being treated in isolation at Westmead Hospital.

VICTORIA: 4

January 25

  • A Chinese national aged in his 50s becomes the first confirmed case of the coronavirus in Australia.
  • The man flew to Melbourne on China Southern flight CZ321 from Wuhan via Guangzhou on January 19.
  • He is now in quarantined isolation at Monash Hospital in Clayton in Melbourne’s east.

January 29

  • A Victorian man in his 60s is diagnosed with the coronavirus.
  • He became unwell on January 23 – two days after returning from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak. 
  •  The man was confirmed as positive on January 29 and was subsequently seen by doctors at the Monash Medical Centre. He was assessed as being well enough to stay at home.

January 30

  • A woman in her 40s is found to have coronavirus. 
  •  She was visiting from China and mostly spent time with her family.
  • She is being treated at Royal Melbourne Hospital.          

February 1

  • A woman in her 20s in Melbourne is found to have the virus

 QUEENSLAND: 5

January 29

  • Queensland confirms its first case after a 44-year-old Chinese national wass diagnosed with the virus.
  • He is being treated at Gold Coast University Hospital.

January 30

  • A 42-year-old Chinese woman who was travelling in the same Wuhan tour group as the 44-year-old man tests positive. She is in Gold Coast University Hospital in stable condition.  

February 4

  • An eight-year-old boy has been diagnosed coronavirus. He is also from the tour group where the other Queensland cases came from    

February 5  

  • The case was found in a 37-year-old man, who was a member of a group of nine Chinese tourists in quarantine on the Gold Coast

February 6

  • A 37-year-old woman has been diagnosed with coronavirus from the same travel group that flew to Queensland from Melbourne on January 27

SOUTH AUSTRALIA: 2

February 1

  • A Chinese couple in their 60s who arrived in Adelaide from Wuhan to visit relatives are confirmed to have coronavirus.

CHINA: 2

January 30

  • Two Australians have been confirmed as having the virus in Wuhan itself. Australia has raised the travel alert level to ‘do not travel’ for the city of Wuhan – the epicentre of the outbreak – and for the entire Hubei province.
  • Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy says unless people have contact with someone who is unwell and has come from that part of China, there is no need for current concern. 

JAPAN: 15    

  • As of February 15, 47 Australians are among 219 confirmed cases of the coronavirus contracted on board Diamond Princess cruise ship at Yokohama.

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