Stranded Canberrans feeling 'hopeless'

The family left Canberra together in January to visit relatives in Mumbai. The plan had been to reunite in the ACT in April after Mr Ramteke left India early for work.

Mr Ramteke has lived here for more than two years and was granted permanent residency through his work as an operations manager at an opensource technologies firm.

When coronavirus happened, Dipika Lade, Prisha and Pransh Ramteke were staying with his mother-in-law. Two cancelled flights later they might see one another again.

"I'm missing my family terribly," Mr Ramteke said.

"The other thing is my wife was looking to return to the workforce, that is important because we just bought a house."

A Senate inquiry was told on Thursday 27,000 Australians had registered as being overseas, with 18,800 of them wanting to come home.

Department of Foreign Affairs official Fiona Webster said the limitation on international arrivals had created a significant problem for Australian travellers, the majority of whom were in India, the Philippines, South Africa and Vietnam.

Until October 24, Melbourne and Hobart will take no international passengers, Sydney will allow 350 per day, Perth will take 525 per week, Brisbane and Adelaide can take 500 per week and Canberra and Darwin are assessing flight proposals on a case-by-case basis.

"The caps are in place for a reason, obviously, and that's to enable quarantine levels to be manageable and to keep Australians across the country COVID-safe," Dr Webster said.

She said around 7500 Australians were in India trying to get home, with just over 8000 already brought in on repatriation flights.

The federal government has organised 64 repatriation flights home, with 13 of those from India.

Rohit Keswani has lived in Australia for 14 years. He is an Australian citizen and has been stuck in Gujarat, about three hours north of Mumbai, since April. He said the $3500 for a ticket on one of the initial flights out of India had been unaffordable to him and when India went into strict lockdown with little warning travel to the airport was not permitted, anyway.

"To be honest I feel hopeless, there is a bit of anxiety and angst inside me that at the drop of a hat the government has just decided to not respond and not clarify what's going on over there. There needs to be a concrete plan," he said.

Currently, the government has no plans for another repatriation flight to India.

"The Australian government continues to explore options to help Australians access flights on a commercial basis," a DFAT spokesperson said. With Australia currently capping arrivals at 3000 per week, the Senate inquiry agreed bringing close to 19,000 people home would take some time.