A travel loophole being used to circumvent the India flights ban has been shut down by the federal government.
Two Australian cricketers, previously stranded in India, arrived home yesterday after travelling through the Qatar capital of Doha.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison addressed the issue while speaking with Ben Fordham on 2GB this morning.
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"We will be taking more action about that loophole," Mr Morrison said.
He said the Federal Government was told earlier this week by Qatar authorities that connecting flights from India would be closed by Wednesday, but that the flight the cricketers were on had taken off before the shutdown.
"We had information on Monday that that wasn't possible," he said.
Mr Morrison said the government had spoken with airlines about the Doha connection and passengers were no longer flying to Australia.
Defence Minister Peter Dutton echoed the Prime Minister's comments on Today, saying the Australian Border Force was "dealing with" the flights and airlines in question.
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Labor Party National President Wayne Swan criticised the government for not identifying the loophole sooner.
"The ramifications of this are incredibly serious for the country," he told Today.
Australia's travel suspension with India, announced earlier this week, had temporarily ended all direct flights from the coronavirus-ravaged nation.
The ban will remain in place until at least May 15.
India has been struggling to manage record numbers of COVID-19 cases in the country, with more than one million new cases reported in the past three days.
Source: https://ift.tt/3nAQaFq
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