Derry women stranded in Australia ‘praying’ they’ll get home

Jamie Quigg and Caoimhe Duffy have been working in Sydney and their visas will expire over the next number of days.

The pair had booked flights to return home last week, at a cost of $1100, but due to current coronavirus restrictions, these were cancelled.

Caoimhe had been working in a pharmacy and Jamie as a customer service advisor for an education institution but their contracts ended last week, so they are now unemployed. They have also been staying in a bedsit, which is costing $400 a week, something they now cannot afford as they are not working.

The duo’s travel company has refused to refund their flights and will only give them a credit voucher. They were booked to fly from Sydney to Dublin, stopping in Abu Dhabi, but this had to be cancelled as UAE is not taking any transits through their airports.

Caoimhe, from Earhart Park and Jamie, from Templegrove, have contacted the Irish and British embassies and the Department of Foreign Affairs. They said there are many, many people in the same position as them, who are trying to get home and the relevant bodies have been inundated with requests. MLA Martina Anderson and Noel McCartney have also been making representations on their behalf.

Jamie and Caoimhe said they have both been ‘crippled with anxiety’ over their situation and are ‘really struggling.’

“We desperately just want to get home to our families.”

Caoimhe said: “It’s awful. We’ve been in contact with as many people as we can, but most responses we get back are the same - that there is a number of people like us in this position and they’re working round the clock.”

In their bid to get home, Caoimhe and Jamie have now had to borrow money from their families and have managed to book flights for this Thursday with Qatar airlines.

They said they are ‘at the point now where we will just do anything to get home’, and are ‘praying’ they will be able to fly this Thursday. They couldn’t use their credit voucher as they are travelling with a different airline.

Caoimhe and Jamie spoke to the Journal in a bid to highlight the situation hundreds of other people have found themselves in. The Journal made contact with the Department of Foreign Affairs and the travel company, but no further correspondence had been received at the time of going to press.