A Canberra couple stuck in Europe say international arrival caps have hampered their ability to get home and fear if they don't get back soon they won't have jobs waiting for them.
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Early last year, Steven Duda and his partner Tennille Lee moved to the United Kingdom for work.
When the pandemic struck, Mr Duda said it would have been unethical for them to return to their Phillip home earlier, as the UK grappled with the first wave of the virus and Ms Lee played a key role as a nurse on the frontline.
Both were also taking part in the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine trial, a "no-brainer" decision for the young couple, Mr Duda said.
"You see the effects of the virus, and we thought it would be unethical if we were available to do it and didn't," he said.
Now determined to return home, Ms Lee is due to go back to her job in Canberra Hospital's emergency department at the end of next month. Mr Duda needs to return to his job, too.
Both are concerned if they don't make it back in time, they won't have jobs to return to.
"The government response has been pretty poor. We didn't get much of a response until we started pushing," Mr Duda said.
Six weeks ago, the couple left the UK for Greece to escape rising cases and save money, and are booked on a flight from Istanbul to Sydney due to depart on Wednesday.
They reached out to Member for Bean David Smith and Senator Penny Wong for help to secure their seat on the flight, for fear they may be kicked off last minute if passenger numbers exceeded capped quarantine positions in NSW.
"The big problem is the caps, it's 100 per cent the caps," Mr Duda said.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced last week, caps on international arrivals would be raised next month, in a bid to get more than 26,000 Australians stuck overseas home by Christmas.
The ACT will soon take 150 travellers every 16 to 18 days, and Adelaide will welcome 100 people every two-weeks.
Western Australia will allow an extra 140 people and Queensland another 150 travellers weekly.
Mr Smith slammed the Morrison government in Parliament on Monday, calling for "more action and less words" to bring people home.
"This situation is just like so many other Australians, across the world, who feel abandoned by the Morrison government," Mr Smith said.
"Steven and Tennille do not ask for any special treatment and recognise that there are other Australians whose need to return to Canberra is greater than their own.
"The Prime Minister has had multiple options and offers to fix this. Yet, in classic Morrison style, we hear over and over again the monotonous, deflecting, drone of 'it's up to the premiers'."
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade offered the couple a spot on recently announced flights from the UK to Darwin, but they had already left for Greece.
Mr Duda said when they explained their situation, they were ignored.
"We got zero response [from DFAT], they didn't even acknowledge our email or say when the next flight would be," Mr Duda said.
"We were trying to use that as a back-up option in case this flight on the 28th fails."
Mr Duda has been regularly checking how many seats are taken on Wednesday's Qatar Airlines flight, unsure whether they will make it on board after they check-in.
"You can look at the seats on each flight and you can see there's 30 or 40 seats occupied, flights with more than that you can see people get bumped off it," he said.
Mr Duda said DFAT had requested Qatar Airlines not cancel the couple's ticket. Although, they have no idea whether it will be enough to ensure they take-off.
After months away, they are eager to return to their Canberra home.
Ms Lee is desperate to see family and friends. Mr Duda is keen to return to a realm of familiarity.
"For me, I think I just need to be back in a familiar [environment], it's been quite crazy and the situation in Europe is really rapidly deteriorating. Pretty much all of Europe is going into lockdown again and I'm really sick of it," he said.