The Federal Government has reiterated the travel ban preventing anyone in India from flying into Australia due to a heightened risk of COVID-19 is a "temporary measure" after severe backlash.
Australians caught flying into the country from India could face fines or even jail time if they breach the travel regulations.
Education Minister Alan Tudge defended the government's approach on Today this morning after WA Australian Medical Association (AMA) President Dr Andrew Miller slammed it as a "complete disgrace".
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"This is a temporary measure which we will relook at in a few week's time but it's just to ensure that we don't get COVID outbreaks here in Australia on a very significant scale," he said.
"About 15 per cent of our Howard Springs facility now has COVID in it, and nearly all of that has been from returning Indians in recent weeks."
Coronavirus has been "running rampant" throughout India, the country recording 392,488 new infections yesterday.
Medical experts had advised Australia's quarantine system should only have a maximum capacity of two per cent of people with COVID-19, Mr Tudge said.
"We are giving those quarantine systems a breather so that we can have surety that they will be safe and infections won't spread throughout the Australian community."
The flight ban will be reviewed on May 15.
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Mr Tudge said he understood the difficulties being faced by Indian-Australians by being locked out of the country, but they could still come to Australia if they undertook quarantine elsewhere.
Dr Miller blasted the government's "precautionary measure" today, apologising live on-air to Indian-Australians.
"It is not Australian to trap people overseas, and to suggest that a particular segment of the community should get fined for this is absolutely unacceptable and outrageous," he said.
"I would just like to apologise to Indian-Australians this morning that those of us who have a voice in this were not able to stop that particular decision around the jailing.
"I'm really sorry."
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Australian-Indian woman Kim, who travelled to Mumbai to be with her dying father in January, was due to fly back to Perth next week but remains stranded in the country.
She told Today the Australian government needed to create a secure quarantine system rather than making returning citizens out to be "criminals".
"Australia has to be there ready to get these citizens into a facility and keep them safe and keep the rest of population safe and do it in a way which is pleasing to all," she said.
Husband Pankaj said he understood the "anxiety" about travellers returning to Australia from India, but the quarantine system should be able to handle positive cases.
"There is infrastructure, this is a country which is a first-world country," he said.
"Australia has everything going to make this happen, probably apart from the will of the government to make it happen."
Dr Miller said the government never banned Australians coming back from Europe or the UK during the peak of their infections.
"If our system is overworked it is not fit for purpose because if you can't run a system where less than two per cent of your people have COVID and still keep COVID out of community, it is not quarantine," he said.
"You should be able to have thousands of people with the disease in quarantine and it not be a problem. It just means we are not prepared."
Australians stuck overseas were now "paying the price" for the government's failures, Dr Miller said.
"I think once people see beyond their own fear of the disease they will understand that these are the people who are suffering because we haven't got our act together on quarantine or vaccine in this country," he said.
"So they are the ones paying the price for us now.
"This will be a dark period in our history looking back."
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