Citizens of Pacific Island nations who are stuck in Australia due to COVID-19 border closures are begging their governments to get them back home.
With no income and no idea when they'll be allowed to return, some of those in Australia fear they may be left homeless if officials don't act soon.
When news broke last month of governments closing their borders, Dublin City University student Tristina Karae immediately booked a flight home to Vanuatu from Ireland.
“The situation was just getting a bit panicked … and my family were a bit worried of having me out there by myself in Europe,” Karae said.
The journey home for Karae meant transiting through two other countries, Abu Dhabi and then Australia.
Karae told the ABC she was only meant to stay in Brisbane overnight before her connecting flight to Vanuatu the following day, but it never happened.
In March, the Vanuatu Government went into lockdown, cancelling international flights, including the one Karae was due to board.
“I think I'm going on 34 days now in Australia. Which is kind of ridiculous,” she said.
Karae paid for accommodation in Brisbane for 28 days after her flight was cancelled, self-isolating as per Australia's guidelines for international visitors.
She then went to stay with relatives in the regional city of Toowoomba to save money.
“They told us we'd have repatriation flights back after the first state of emergency. So it didn't make sense for me to move all the way out of Brisbane,” she said.
“But then Vanuatu implemented another state of emergency … and they didn't tell us for how long, which is hard because we were renewing hotel stays week-by-week or day-by-day, which is really expensive.”
Though she said she was grateful to stay with family while in Australia, she was still desperate to return home.
“The thing with Vanuatu is we have low wage rates, so we have to dig deep into our pockets and our family have to dig deep into their pockets,” Karae said.
“Which is difficult for them to support themselves and at the same time support us.”
George Malas visited Brisbane with his family for a friend's wedding five weeks ago. They haven't been able to leave since.
“We thought [the Vanuatu Government] were going to send out another repatriation flight, but they never [did],” he said.
“We didn't have an opportunity to get on the first because it was full,” he told the ABC.
Malas said up to 200 other ni-Vanuatu citizens like him were waiting for a flight back home from Australia.
Vanuatu is just one of several Pacific countries that have closed their borders due to the coronavirus pandemic.