Welcome to Prison Australia where unvaccinated citizens are not able to leave. (And Canadians thought they were the only ones). If your best friend is getting married in Madagascar, the Africans will let you fly in, but you can't go because Australia won't let you out.

Australians who are unvaccinated or not-jabbed-enough can apply for permission to leave. But unless you need foreign medical care, live or work overseas, or are flying in the "national interest" (meaning you're a politician) you may not qualify. Trips need to be "longer than three months" for no good reason I can think of, except that it stops most holidayers. Which is obviously the point.

People may get an exemption if they need to work overseas. Which is fine if your boss wants to send you to conventions in the Greek Islands but you can't take the wife and kids unless she owns the company, and the kids are your employees. Otherwise, there's no pleasure cruises for the unjabbed peasants from Oz.
Rafting Training
© Bijay Chaurasia
Unvaccinated Australians who want to leave pretty much have to escape

We can always drive to Broome. We might find an Indonesian fishing boat and get a lift back the other way, in a kind of reverse boat-people maneuver. With luck, Australian-boat-people might be able to apply for political asylum in Bali. But will Indonesia accept them? Otherwise it's only 150 kilometers from the top end of Queensland to Papua New Guinea. It's possible to swim or paddle across the Torres Strait, it's just that the crocodiles may appreciate your trip more than you do.

The ban doesn't apply to unvaccinated foreigners in Australia, (luckily for Novak, eh, or he might still be here?). Non-Australians are free to leave, so dual nationals could always renounce their citizenship but the rest of us just have to go stateless.

Right now, there are about 70 countries which allow unvaccinated travelers in. Places like France, Spain, Greece and the UK, as well as Norway, Israel, Denmark, and those bastions of freedom: Cuba, Russia and parts of Africa and central America.

When nations with medical systems as good as Haiti aren't afraid to welcome the Unvaxxed, it seems a tad odd that Australia is afraid to send them.

As it is, the Australian made vaccine is not on the approved list in Australia, so unvaccinated Australians aren't able to fly out of Australia to go to Iran where they could get an Australian vaccine. It's almost like we're owned by Pfizer.

Set Australia Free Scott Morrison...

If it all sounds a bit hard to believe, ponder that it's been the law since the Human Biosecurity Emergency was announced two years ago:
From 25 March 2020, all Australian citizens and permanent residents must not travel outside Australia unless exempt...
Long after Covid became tame enough to let in, and evolved into omicron, the Pandemic Emergency was extended again and again, even in February this year until 17 April 2022. Will they extend it again? I'll have more to say tomorrow...

From the Australian Government Health website — here it is in black and white:
  • Restrictions on outbound international travel for unvaccinated Australians
Unvaccinated Australian citizens and permanent residents

If you do not meet Australia's definition of fully vaccinated for international travel purposes, you need to apply for a travel exemption to leave Australia. For more information and how to apply see Travel exemption process to leave Australia.

Who can apply for a travel exemption

You can apply for a travel exemption if you:
  • are travelling as part of the response to the COVID-19 outbreak, including the provision of aid
  • need urgent medical treatment that is not available in Australia
  • are travelling for a compelling reason and for three months or longer
  • your travel is in the national interest
  • you are ordinarily resident in a country other than Australia.
  • are travelling for your business or employer
  • providing critical skills or working in a critical sector.
Would you like hoops to jump through?
When to apply

You need to apply for a travel exemption at least two weeks, but not more than two months, before your planned travel.

If you are travelling due to the death or critical illness of a close family member, you can apply inside this timeframe. We will prioritise your application.
At the moment, two jabs is enough, and people can do them barely two weeks apart and then fly seven days later, which doesn't sound like anyone in the Health department is too concerned about the travellers actually being protected. If we want to know the efficacy we have to wait two or three weeks after the last injection before we even count them. But if we are only worried about them getting on planes full of viruses, who cares?

It's not about health is it?

In February more than 400 Australians applied but were told they couldn't fly out of the country. Some 390 people applied to leave on compassionate grounds, but 168 of those were knocked back. About half the people who said they lived overseas were not allowed to leave either. All told during the last two years the Australian Government has declared that 147,000 Australians didn't have permission to leave the country. Who knows how many thousands more never bothered to apply in the first place.

hat tip to Sharon W.