Sydney — Singapore is ready to take Australians who can be quarantined in the city-state before they are allowed to return home, claimed an Australian politician named Mr Singh on Australia’s ABC News.
His comments followed the Australian government’s threat earlier this month to fine and jail Australians returning from India during the pandemic because it wanted to protect the 25 million Australians at home from the coronavirus.
About the Australians in India, Mr Singh said: “We can bring them into Christmas Island, we can bring them into Darwin, we can bring them into other places if we don’t want to bring them into Melbourne, Sydney, the big places, or we can bring them into Singapore at least. They can have a quarantine in Singapore for two weeks. And then bring them here for another week or so for quarantine.
“I think Singapore is ready, I have got a call from a few senators today and they said Singapore is ready as well to take our citizens back from India or any other country for the quarantine”, he added.
“The issue right now in India is people are morally disappointed” he said, adding that other countries were repatriating their citizens from India while Australia was barring them from coming home.
Incidentally, the ban has been lifted and Australians are being allowed to return home from India. The first Australian repatriation flight from India landed in Darwin, AFP reported on May 15.
Mr Singh obviously spoke to ABC before the quarantine in Singapore was extended to three weeks.
The videoclip was posted on Reddit on Tuesday (May 18) and garnered over a hundred comments from angry netizens.
It was also circulated on Twitter.
This Australian politician’s suggestion that 🇦🇺 use Singapore as a quarantine station to bring back 🇦🇺s stranded in India is making the rounds. MFA has already denied any such plans in March & transit passengers from 🇮🇳 are currently banned anyway. https://t.co/9uh1ISBieu
— Dhevarajan Devadas (@historyogi) May 19, 2021
According to Singapore’s Ministry of Health (MOH), “With effect from 22 April 2021, 2359 hours, until further notice, all long-term visit pass holders and short-term visitors with recent travel history (including transit) to India within the last 14 days will not be allowed entry into Singapore, or transit through Singapore. This will also apply to all those who had obtained prior approval for entry into Singapore. Only Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents of Singapore will be allowed entry”.
In March this year, similar to the video above, The Sydney Morning Herald published an article that claimed “The Morrison government is working on an ambitious plan that would establish Singapore as a quarantine gateway, holiday destination and potential vaccination hub for returning Australians, international students and business travellers”.
Responding, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said:
“We refer to The Sydney Morning Herald’s report “Australia and Singapore plan for travel bubble and quarantine hub by July” on 14 March 2021.
Australia is a key partner of Singapore in the region. We are in discussions on how to cooperate in opening our economies safely, taking into consideration the COVID-19 situation in both countries. Thus far, Singapore and Australia have been able to control the COVID-19 pandemic. Singapore is currently in discussions with Australia on the mutual recognition of vaccination certificates and resumption of travel with priority for students and business travellers. We are also discussing the possibility of an air travel bubble which will allow residents of Singapore and Australia to travel between both countries without the need for quarantine. We are not in discussion on the concept of a quarantine centre or vaccination hub. Australian nationals can transit via Singapore without quarantining to return home if they travel on approved transit routes and if they comply with our public health protocols while in transit.”
/TISG