The Australian government is considering criminal action against its citizens if they arrive in the country from India bypassing a flight ban imposed earlier this week, 9News Australia reported on Friday. On Tuesday, Australia had banned all direct flights from India till May 15 amid the second wave of coronavirus.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Cabinet is expected to take a decision on the matter under the country’s Biosecurity Act, the country’s public news service ABC News reported. The law allows the government to take any necessary measures to prevent and control Covid-19, to protect the health of all Australians.

By exercising the law, the Australian government could possibly lay down a provision of five years of imprisonment or a fine of 66,000 Australian dollars (nearly Rs 38 lakh) if a flier enters the country and have been in India in the last two weeks, according to 9News Australia.

Meanwhile, on Friday, Australia extended the ambit of flight ban from India by shutting transit routes through Doha, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, ABC News reported. The decision was taken after two Australian cricketers, Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson, who left the Indian Premier League midway, took a Qatar Airways flight on Thursday afternoon to return to Australia. Another cricketer Andrew Tye had also left the tournament and reached Australia before the ban kicked in.

“We have directly dealt with the airlines in Qatar, so those transit passengers...are no longer coming through from Doha,” Morrison told Nine Radio. Following the decision, Qatar Airways put out a statement saying it was not selling tickets currently from India to Australia via the country.

Earlier, Morrison had said that players participating in the IPL will not be given any preferential treatment for returning to the country amid the flight ban. Nearly 9,000 Australians are currently stranded in India, according to ABC News.