I have much sympathy for you, sir. I understand that, after having spent all that effort begging us to come here when things were sunny, and filling our laps with sickly-sweet brochures that promised us Australia would welcome us and support us, you are simply too exhausted to be expected to treat us with any sort of decency or fairness
Personally, I can’t go back. I can’t go back because my country’s borders are closed. Even if they were open, and I did risk my health by taking a 12+ hour flight that would force me into close contact with hundreds of others in airports and airplanes, the current situation would require me to spend two weeks in government quarantine after landing. This would disrupt my studies in a way I simply cannot risk.
Mr Morrison, someday, this pandemic will end, and we will go from being liabilities to assets. Then, you will go back to welcoming international students to this loving, supportive, multicultural country. When that day comes, we will not forget how you treated us during the COVID-19 crisis. We will not forget that when we lost our jobs and stopped enriching your economy, you told us to get out. We will not forget that, when the time came for you to put your money where your mouth was, you would rather let us starve than support us.
