Why are Australians stuck overseas during the coronavirus pandemic only now telling DFAT they want to come home?

Back in September, we heard 26,000 Australians stuck overseas during the coronavirus pandemic had told the Federal Government they wanted to return home.

Just over 4,000 of them were classified by the Government as vulnerable.

One month later, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said while thousands of people had returned, the goal was to have the rest home by Christmas.

But last week we found out the number of Australians who had registered to come home had shot up by a fair bit.

The Government now says 36,000 people have registered as wanting to come home. Some 8,000 of them are classed as vulnerable.

The Government has said it expects 29,000 of them to be home by the…