Highlights
- Aarya Mittal is one of 209 Australian minors stranded in India
- His parents have been a denied travel exemption multiple times
- Australia’s government has not yet provided a plan to repatriate its permanent residents and citizens
Aarya Mittal is a four-year-old Australian boy who is currently stranded in India.
Parteek Mittal and Kanu Agarwal had left him there in 2019 in the care of his grandparents, with the plan to have them bring him back to Australia a few months later.
“I have not received any response on my parents’ visa applications. They kept getting delayed from weeks to months. Even now, the portal shows the processing time as eight-to-10 months. I have applied for my travel exemption several times, but that was denied too,” Mr Mittal told SBS Hindi.
He said “he ran from pillar to post” to be able to bring his child back home.
He emailed the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and even provided them a statutory declaration citing his family's predicament but received no response.
However, Mr Mittal did receive his latest travel exemption rejection in May.
Aarya Mittal with his grandparents in India Source: Supplied by Parteek Mittal
Neha Sandhu, a resident of Queensland, runs a support group on social media that seeks to assist such parents and their stranded children in India.
Having accompanied her niece and nephew to and from India, she told SBS Hindi that she is familiar with the rules around minors travelling with carers.
Ms Sandhu’s knowledge came in handy to many parents.
“The situation is better for children above the age of six, as they can travel unaccompanied through arrangements with Air India. Parents have to find carers for children below the age of six, who are willing to accompany them,” she elaborated.
Mother Kanu Agarwal had last met her son as a 2-year-old baby. Source: Supplied by Parteek Mittal
Finding a carer and familiarising him/her with a child is just one aspect of the tedious process of repatriating minors during the pandemic. The other one is quarantine.
“Parents are not allowed to quarantine with the unaccompanied minors in the Howard Springs quarantine facility. That is one major problem in having children brought back with carers,” Ms Sandhu added.
During the Senate Estimates hearing on 3 June, the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade informed the Senate that there are 209 ‘single registered minors’ currently stranded in India.
Aarya happens to be one of them.
During the hearing, Labor Senator Penny Wong questioned the government on their timeline of bringing unaccompanied minors back from India.
In happier times: Aarya and his elder sister celebrating the latter's birthday. Source: Supplied by Parteek Mittal
In response, officials from the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee said that will be done “as soon as possible”.
In the absence of a clear plan from the government for the return of these children, parents like Ms Agarwal have their fears firmly in place.
“My son doesn't recognise me much now. My daughter cries for him every day. He has been away for more than two years and is just a little over four. I am worried that I am losing connection with him,” she said as she shared her concerns with SBS Hindi.
Currently, there are almost 11,000 stranded Australians in India. The government of Australia has planned three repatriation flights for them in the month of June.
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