Business class flights for $29,000 not affordable for Australians stranded in the Netherlands

Australian citizen Nel Jans says she is stuck in the Netherlands and has no idea how to return home.

Nel and her partner John have been stranded in the Netherlands for months after leaving Australia to visit a dying friend.

Nel claims they have received no clear direction or advice from authorities how to navigate their journey back to Australia. 

The couple now faced limited options for commercial passenger flights to Australia with just two business class seats available in November.

These two seats will cost a staggering $29,000, which they said they simply “cannot afford”.

Nel and John – who both hold Dutch passports — were granted compassionate circumstances to leave Australia in early July.

“Every time I check for flights it doesn’t seem there is a flight; there’s none in October, there is one in November on a business class seat,” Nel said.

Nel — who hails from Mount Gambier in South Australia — is now contemplating searching for work in the Netherlands given the financial strain.

Flight confusion

The couple remained unsure whether they could book a flight ticket and use that as proof to get approval to enter back into Australia, or if they must seek approval before booking a flight.

“It’s very uncertain what is the best way to go because the people we know had a flight [booked] and that got cancelled,” Nel said.

Nel said it was hard to remain positive when seeing international Hollywood stars and students seemingly easily travelling between nations.

“It’s a bit sour,” Nel said.

“It makes you think, okay, what is this about? Is it about the money?”

The couple was living on John’s long service leave payments and were house-sitting for friends and family.

But the threat of a long-term stay is driving them to search for employment.

“There is a saying that visitors and fish stay fresh for three days, so we don’t want to stretch the friendship by over-staying.

“We have to find a rental place, which at the moment is shocking because there is a shortage of rentals, and then we still have no transport.”

This is ‘not normal’

Nel — a mental health worker – was looking into the aged care industry where there was also a shortage of workers.

“The only problem is if they asked for a police check, that would delay things massively and maybe not happen,” Nel said.

“Healthcare for instance, hopefully we don’t need it, but you have to organise something, so we found out that we had to apply.”

Nel said it was a difficult decision to leave Australian shores during the pandemic.

“It’s not an easy decision to leave a country — but we still decided to go ahead because a very, very dear friend was dying and he really wanted to see us,” Nel said.

But she said there was now a “cloud hanging over their head” that they may not be able to return to Australia for some time.

“It’s worse than we had envisioned not being able to come back to Australia at the time that we had planned,” Nel said.

Nel encouraged others in similar situations to stay positive and live life. 

She said she refused to say goodbye, but would rather “see you soon”.

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