PHOTO: PENNY STEPHENS/SYDNEY-MORNING-HERALD Sophie Smith with her children Will, 4, Charlie, 6, and Lucy, 2.
Sophie Smith has been stranded in an Airbnb holiday rental property in Melbourne’s Surrey Hills with her wife and three children for 10 weeks after flying to Australia to visit her dying father just before the border closed in March.
She is one of thousands trying to leave the country at a time when Covid-19 restrictions make this impossible in all but exceptional circumstances, with official data showing more than 10,000 people have lodged requests for permission to leave or enter Australia since the travel ban began.
The family, normally based in Phuket in Thailand where the children go to school, faces uncertainty over whether they will be able to continue their expat life as they await the outcome of a request for an exemption from the Home Affairs department.
“I’m lucky the school doesn’t go back until August,” said Smith, who works at an international school in Thailand.
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