The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Marise Payne, has denied that the government’s new travel ban on India is racist.
When speaking to reporters on Sunday, the minister insisted that the decision to impose a heavy travel ban on India was “absolutely not in any way” racist.
However, the Australian public and the Council of Indian-Australians have labelled the new travel ban on India as racist due to the restrictions applying specifically to India when similar restrictions weren’t applied to the UK or Europe. Interesting…
When asked about India’s current situation, Senator Payne replied “we absolutely recognised the very, very difficult circumstances occurring in India right now.”
According to the senator, “the decision … has been made under careful consideration of the Biosecurity Act on the basis of the advice of the chief medical officer.” Any Australian who is caught breaching the new travel ban can be subject to fines of up to $66,600 or five years in prison. Senator Payne’s colleagues have voiced their support for the new act.
Australia is no stranger to imposing travel bans because of COVID-19. However, it’s a decision that has been heavily criticised by everybody who is not the government. While other countries have struggled with their own waves of cases (chiefly the US and the UK), people have been quick to point out that the Australian government had not placed such drastic measures against them.
“Australia has obligations to our citizens, to people who are Australians – not just to abandon them overseas, but then to threaten them is quite extraordinary action,” said Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese on Sunday.
“The government’s got to justify how it is that the figures from India are similar to what they’ve been in the past from the UK and the US, but we haven’t seen these sort of measures.”
Recently, India recorded a daily death toll of approximately 3,700 people in 24 hours, increasing its total death toll to 215,000. At the same time, it was reported that India had seen 392,488 new COVID-19 cases.
Hospitals have been inundated with patients, and are now preventing new patients from entering. Beds are being filled quicker than doctors can manage, while oxygen supplies across major cities are running dangerously low.
Many videos of the crisis in India also show mass funeral-pyre burnings on the streets as crematoriums struggle to cope with the rapidly increasing death toll.
“We’re not racists, of course, but we just couldn’t do this to USA or UK citizens, because they’re… well, you know. White. Like us.” https://t.co/Q0xDiG8YFl
— Antifa Maynard G Krebs Cultural Marxist Lefty (@Diamondback1949) May 2, 2021
Public officer for the Council of Indian, Mohit Kumar summarised that the Government’s response is “a kick in the guts.”
“It’s un-Australian and it’s unacceptable,” he said.
