THINKING OUTSIDE THE BORDER

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As perhaps the only country still able to eliminate Covid Delta, because we can’t afford not to, and with many thousands of Kiwis unable to return from abroad because of a drastic MIQ facility shortage, it’s time to think outside the border;

How about we establish offshore MIQ facilities in the main centres of expat Kiwi concentration, on which others wanting to return could converge,  where individuals, families and groups could serve their strictly supervised fourteen day quarantine time, before then seamlessly boarding their pre-paid flight home.

Designed as a complete beginning-to-end package, including both the cost of their stay in the offshore MIQ facility plus the cost of their airline ticket, it would give Kiwis some hope of returning in time for Christmas, while saving them many thousands of dollars in rental and living expenses they would otherwise be forced to pay, if left to the tender mercies of the ballot.

It would be a win-win situation. Our obligation to our fellow Kiwis would be met and they would be back, many with skills we might well need in the still uncertain years ahead.

Operated under the strictest of MIQ protocols, perhaps by Air new Zealand with all its years of experience co-ordinating the passage of people, and which would have every incentive to ensure it was run properly, it could require proof of vaccination and regular testing during their time in the MIQ facility,  before then being allowed to fly.

Working with our other official border agencies and with New Zealand Embassy or Consular staff oversight, such a plan would solve the terrible stress being suffered by so many in this unprecedented situation, while ensuring as many Kiwis as possible have a really happy Christmas

Unless someone’s got a better idea.

8 COMMENTS

  1. I don’t really care about Kiwi travellers who are desperate for a ‘holiday’ during a pandemic Crisis!

    If its a one-way journey ka pai, but if its just for a stop and go, they can fuck off!
    With the exception for medical, life or death, ok. But for a ‘holiday?’ Taihoa!

  2. I don’t think we are eliminating Covid this time.
    There is so much spin they haven’t honestly announced such but dropping levels with active unlinked cases was either
    1) an admission they couldn’t sustain lockdown
    2) an admission they were not trying to eradicate
    3) an admission they were not able to eradicate.

    We know from NSW that without strict lockdown Delta gets out.
    We got pink hair at the beach, gang funerals, parties, non compliance, infected gangs.

    Otherwise yeah offshore processing would be great I guess it hinges on who pays for it.
    Time should also be spent figuring out how we are to live with the virus – this government is incapable of thinking ahead for anything.
    They will never admit failure of course but how many days/ weeks before they spin the other way and tell us what we all know – we are living with the virus.

    • Time is being spent figuring out how we are going to live with the virus, so if you haven’t already, get vaccinated, encourage those you care about to get vaccinated, then buckle up, 2022 is going to get bumpy.

  3. These people overseas are probably already vaxxed for a starters, and could also then be allowed to ‘home’ isolate, after all its ok for Gangs.

  4. If MIQ was to be expanded, would it not be potentially cheaper, more trusted and perhaps more legal if it was expanded within NZ rather than overseas?

    To avoid a breach happening between the overseas MIQ facility and a seat on the plane, there would need to control of transport to the airport, as well as dedicated check-in and boarding facilities at the airport. As for MIQ itself, you would need a workforce that would not transfer COVID into the isolation facility from the external setting. And all this would get harder if the host country is one that does not have COVID under control or is learning to live with the virus.

    If people are to isolate, it is better it is done here and within our control. It’s harder to think of people more motivated and to keep COVID out of NZ than New Zealanders themselves.

    As for Christmas, it is an emotional but arbitrary deadline. If we are not ready to receive more returnees by then, so be it. Global pandemics can be inconvenient.

  5. I disagree about the difficulties of MIQ. Know of a number of people who left MIQ and came back without many problems. Too many people are complaining who left NZ by their own decisions AFTER Covid and now can’t come back as quickly as they would like.

    Also Covid/MIQ has shown up the dangers of giving away so much NZ citizenship and NZ residency when we have 70 year olds, who speak no English, who don’t live here, coming back through MIQ with Covid, because they ‘are a NZ citizen or permanent resident’. Also all the 501’s being deported back to NZ after spending minimal time here as children! Yikes what will happen in a decade with all the dysfunctional or sick people being deported back to NZ and demanding all their rights and pensions and needing prison stays?

    OZ worked out the problem about a decade ago and stopped anybody claiming welfare there who was not a OZ citizen and making it much harder to live there if you were new to OZ and not working or were a criminal (including much harder conditions for NZ residents who they knew were doubling in size). Meanwhile sleepy hobbits take the 501’s… and Tarrent types and anti vaxxers can come through MIQ, no questions asked.

  6. Another Jacinda Canute strategy.

    You are either a smug hermit nation that will experience a significant drop in standard of living over the next decade or you have to take your poison like the rest of the world

    I’ve always been a firm believer of ripping the bandaid off.

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