India Asks Australia To Ease Covid Travel Curbs, Says Students’ 'Frustration' Completely Understandable

The External Affairs Minister said that he raised this issue “in some detail” with his Australian counterpart Marise Payne.

EAM S. Jaishankar with his Australian counterpart Marise Payne in New Delhi. (Image: PTI)

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Saturday urged Australia to ease Covid-19 travel restrictions for thousands of students, who have been unable to get into the country since the pandemic began.

The External Affairs Minister said that he raised this issue “in some detail” with his Australian counterpart Marise Payne.

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“We have heard a lot from the students and I think their frustrations, their feelings, are completely understandable,” he told reporters, AFP reported.

Stating students were “a very high priority” for Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government, Jaishankar said “many of them would like to be at the institutions where they want to study”.

“We have been having some problems with some other countries as well. We had initially with the US, we are still having some issues with Canada,” he added.

Speaking at a press conference alongside Jaishankar, Payne said she is “one of the most enthusiastic proponents of welcoming back our much-loved Indian students back to the Australian education system as soon as it is possible for us”.

The Australian Foreign Minister further said that there were around 60,000 Indians currently studying in her country.

“The Covid restrictions have impacted travel to and from Australia, for not just the students that you have raised but for Australians themselves,” Payne said.

“I look forward to being one of the people at the airport to welcome the first arrivals of Indian students coming back,” she added underlining that higher vaccination levels of Australians were required to “give us the confidence to begin a sort of reopening” that will enable the students to return.