As the world locks down, three hundred Australians are stranded in Peru with all commercial flights grounded.

Mhairie Thompson is there with her husband and two young children, and she tells Deborah Knight about their struggle with uncertainty.

She says the message from Foreign Minister Marise Payne is not the reality of what is happening.

“There’s no real updates about what’s going on. We don’t understand why in the last week there’s been so many other countries that have managed to come to Peru and get their citizens and residents out, whereas we’re eight or nine days on and Australia is still in the dark.”

Mrs Thompson says the only advice they’ve been given is to either sit-tight or pay a minimum of $5000 per person for a charter flight to get home.

“We don’t know what’s happening. The only option we have is this extortionate flight home, and it’s not even the government that’s organising it, it’s been Australians on the ground.

“We just feel abandoned. We feel like the government is doing nothing for us, they’re leaving us in the dark.”

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