THE Western Australian Government should prioritise family reunions and show more transparency with its border policies, advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) believes.
The non-profit organisation’s Australian researcher Sophie McNeill has lambasted the state’s government for maintaining hard borders without detailing clearly what the exception to travel restrictions should be.
“Governments can restrict people’s movement for compelling public health purposes, but any restrictions on these rights should be strictly necessary and proportionate,” McNeill said.
“The process in Western Australia is opaque, confusing, and arbitrary,” she added.
After interviewing 17 applicants who were denied access to WA on compassionate grounds, the group believes the state is creating unnecessary confusion around what information is required to enter, which exemption category to apply for, and who the applicants should turn to for advice.
For example, suffering from mental health hardship as a result of being separated from family is not on the list of accepted exemption criteria, HRW says, adding that a father in Queensland who has been separated from his three young children for more than 10 months has been refused entry to the state twice.
“My little three-year-old cries sometimes and the other two [children] are always asking me when I will go back, being able to talk to someone or get help is near impossible,” the unnamed man informed HRW.
When comparing the WA’s policies with other states which have implemented hard borders throughout the health crisis, HRW said the state stood out as having the least flexible approach based on active case numbers.
Earlier this month, Western Australia’s Chief Medical Officer Andy Robertson revealed the state was considering forming travel bubbles with select Australian states (TD 07 Oct).
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Source: traveldaily