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Comment by pzh | Hacker News Reader

You can travel between the countries you hold a passport of regardless of what emergency rules they impose. No country refused entry to its own citizens during the pandemic.

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> No country refused entry to its own citizens during the pandemic.

Australia

Australia even prevented citizens from leaving unless they applied for an “exception”. A complete shitshow…

Is it anyway legal to refuse entry to one country's own citizens? Did Aus courts weigh in on the matter.

The law is ultimately defined by the country; there is no fundamental law which could answer the question posed in your first sentence.

Yes, but now we know where to not get a passport.

Eh, it’s still an excellent passport. Decent social safety net, visa-free entry to a ton of countries, E-3 US work visa (the best US work visa class out there), and automatic residency in New Zealand.

>No country refused entry to its own citizens during the pandemic.

"Japan suspends new reservations on all incoming flights" https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-japan...

This was a short lived measure but did have the effect of preventing some citizens from returning. It could be argued that they could travel by boat, but I believe most ocean travel was also restricted at the time.

Chinese citizens cannot go back to China.

Yes, they can.

I would really appreciate if you tell me how to get back to China from US. I can't even book a flight as all flights are cancelled. https://www.ikkyinchina.com/

Via Hong Kong

Need permit, you can't get it in US.

Ah, fair point. I’d forgotten about the HK / China travel permit bit.

Edit: assume via Singapore also doesn’t work?

Direct flight from Singapore to Xiamen is 14.5k USD, but you can't book it anyway. http 404

I know what you mean, but in legal terms Chinese citizens still have a "right of entry". In reality of course there are no flights and there are onerous rules about quarantines and "Green Codes".

De-facto they are preventing citizens from entering but de-jure they are still allowed. But I mean it's China, is anyone surprised here?

Like others said, many countries make it very difficult or borderline impossible to go back during the pandemic. Funnily enough, being treated like that makes me want to immigrate/gain a second citizenship more than ever. It's tough to feel like a citizen of one's country when the basic thing of being able to go back is so damn tough.

I'm not sure that's completely true. Some certainly had strict limits on the numbers that could enter (Australia, New Zealand, etc.) as everyone had to go through he government run quarantine systems.

Australia made it borderline impossible and also restricted citizens from leaving (I think they were the only country to do so?)

India refused entry to Indian citizens during the first year of the pandemic.

That’s not true. Norway did - no non-residents allowed to visit.

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