Her son has not yet crossed the doors of the arrival hall of Sydney airport that a tear bead already in the eyes of Glynnis Nancarrow. “He’s from Tokyo, I haven’t seen him for over two years,” blows this mother of three children. “He was living in Japan when Australia suddenly decided to close its external borders in March 2020. He might have returned earlier but I didn’t want him to spend fourteen days locked up in a quarantine hotel. I didn’t expect to lose him for so long. » Monday February 21, following twenty-three months of voluntary isolation, Australia finally reopened its doors to all doubly vaccinated travelers.
Among the first 5,000 visitors, greeted with stuffed koalas and free coffees to the applause of a visiting drag queen group ” set the mood “, tourists are rare and mostly Australians. They were the first to be authorized on 1is November 2021, to cross the borders of the country transformed into a fortress. “I went to see my mother in Vietnam. She is very sick. It was extremely moving to finally be able to hold her in my arms. says Linh Huynh, who spent three weeks with her family.
Like a third of the Australian population, she was born overseas. If she supported the government’s decision to close the doors of the country to protect itself from the pandemic, she suffered from this long distance.
“Never once more cut off from mine”
For Leisei Giwmy, a business student, this ordeal was so painful that she decided to pack up and return to live in Vanuatu, the Melanesian archipelago from which she originates. “It took twenty months for the authorities to begin to loosen the noose, for them to allow our parents to enter the country, then international students, etc. I don’t ever want to be cut off from my family once more.” lets go of the young girl who is waiting for her sister, her arms laden with a huge bouquet of flowers. In a month, she will leave with her.
A few steps away, Charmaine Nair, a New Zealander living in Australia, and Desirel Calvin Lawrence, an American just arrived from Washington, are looking for someone to take their picture. “in front of the Sydney Airport logo”. This couple, who survived months of estrangement, still has trouble believing in the reality of their reunion. “Until the end, I was afraid that there was a problem and especially to catch the Covid-19. I had to do a PCR test and two different types of antigen tests before leaving. This whole experience has been hyper-stressful,” says the young man.
You have 42.5% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.
