“It is time to make your way home” Prime Minister Scott Morrison has told anyone visiting Australia including Students.

“It is time to make your way home” Prime Minister Scott Morrison has told anyone visiting Australia including Students.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has told anyone visiting Australia, or on a student visa and unable to stay financially afloat, due to the coronavirus crisis “it is time to make your way home”

Mr Morrison said that much as it is “lovely” to have “visitors to Australia”, those who could not support themselves may consider “it is time to make your way home”.

He said the country must focus at present on its citizens and residents.

“These student visa holders, and those who are in Australia under various visa arrangements, they are obviously not held here compulsorily,” he told reporters in Canberra today after a National Cabinet meeting with state and territory leaders.

“If they are not in a position to support themselves then there is the alternative for them to return to their home countries” Prime Minister said.

“We still have quite a number of people who are here on visitor visas.

If you're a visitor in this country, it is time, as it has been now for some while – and I know many visitors have – to make your way home and to ensure that you can receive the supports that are available … in your home countries.”

There are hundreds of thousands of foreign students studying in Australia who contribute some $30 billion each year to the economy through university fees and tax payments. But many now face the prospect of struggling to pay their bills as social distancing measures shut down industries and trigger mass job losses to casual workforces.