Highlights
- Over 200 minor Australian children are stuck in COVID-ravaged India
- Third COVID wave in India likely to hit children more, warn health experts
- Desperate parents question Australian government’s plans to repatriate minors
For young parents Gagandeep Singh Bajwa and Amandeep Sandhu, days and nights are spent worrying.
As COVID-19 continues to rage through the state of Punjab in north India, they are becoming increasingly stressed about their two-year-old daughter Rubani, who is currently living with her grandparents in Mohali, near the state capital of Chandigarh.
The couple lives in Melbourne with their older daughter who is five years of age. They had sent Rubani to India with her maternal grandparents in early 2020 as they were then trying to find their feet in this new city after moving from Queensland.
“We decided to send Rubani with my wife’s parents so she could stay there for three months until we settled into our new life. I had just started my course in nursing. We had planned to fly her back after three months, but in March, COVID struck and borders were closed, leaving us with no choice but to wait for the outbreak to settle down,” Mr Bajwa told SBS Punjabi.
Since then, the couple has explored various ways to fly Rubani back, including arranging a volunteer carer to escort her on the flight. But their plan fell through when their daughter refused to travel with a stranger.
Amandeep Sandhu with her daughters. Source: Supplied by Amandeep Sandhu
“I found someone from a Facebook group travelling to Melbourne on a Qatar Airways flight on 27 May. But as luck would have it, my daughter started crying hysterically at the airport and didn’t agree to accompany that traveller who had volunteered to bring her back,” Rubani’s inconsolable mother said.
Ms Sandhu added that just when they thought they were hours away from reuniting with her daughter, they found themselves back to square one.
“We had spent $4000 on her ticket, had arranged for Rubani to familiarise herself with the carer, but nothing worked at the end. We want the government to either allow our parents to fly our child home or give us special permission to bring her here. After all, she is an Australian citizen,” the 33-year-old mother said.
India’s third wave to hit children, warn medics
Children wearing face masks are seen in Srinagar, India. Source: Sipa USA Idrees Abbas/SOPA Images/Sipa
Health experts in India warn that the virus is likely to attack people who are not immune to it.
Dr V Ravi, a virologist based in India, told The Hindustan Times that the third wave of the coronavirus could impact children more as there are currently no jabs available for them.
“The government should take some important policy decisions on their approach towards starting school the next academic year, considering that the next wave will affect children. Kids will also be more vulnerable because they are not vaccinated,” he said.
Australian permanent resident, Kartiki’s * five-year-old daughter is stuck near Mumbai in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, where 8,000 children and teenagers had tested positive to COVID-19 in May alone.
“I can’t sleep at night thinking about my daughter’s safety. The government needs to ramp up its repatriation efforts for our children on priority,” the 32-year-old told SBS Punjabi.
Labor demands timeline for return of unaccompanied minors
During the Senate Estimates hearing in Canberra on 3 June, officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) revealed that 209 minors are currently stuck in India while only five have returned home on repatriation flights this week.
DFAT’s First Assistant Secretary Lynette Wood, however, denied they were ‘unaccompanied minors’ because she claimed most were living with family members or guardians. She assured that DFAT was working with each family on a case-by-case basis.
Not pleased with DFAT’s response to her questions, Shadow Foreign Minister Penny Wong slammed the department for “quibbling” over language and demanded a clear timeline for bringing Australian children home.
Labor Senator Penny Wong speaks during Senate Estimates at Parliament House in Canberra Source: AAP
“Will you give me the best estimate as to when the 209 unaccompanied minors currently in India will be home,” Senator Wong questioned the committee.
‘Government must allocate seats for children on every repatriation flight’
Queensland-based Neha Sandhu, the admin of WhatsApp group ‘Unaccompanied minor parents’, has assisted over 10 Indian-Australian families in bringing their children home since July 2020.
Ms Sandhu told SBS Punjabi that she has at least 160 parents in her group, and only five have been assisted by DFAT so far.
Neha Sandhu has been providing support to parents whose kids are stranded in India since July 2020. Source: Supplied by Ms Sandhu
“On Thursday, DFAT officials told the Senate committee that they are in touch with all families and assisting everyone on a case-by-case basis, which is clearly not the case. Only five families so far in the group have been assigned case officers,” she claimed.
In the absence of any assistance from the Australian government, Ms Sandhu said that parents are desperately pleading with returning travellers from India to help bring their children back home.
“One solution for parents is to find willing and responsible travellers or acquaintances travelling from India and request them to escort their children during the long-haul flight. Once here, parents can join their kids at quarantine facilities and then bring them home,” she said.
“The other option is for parents to arrange an inward travel exemption for a grandparent or a family member so he/she can accompany the child on the flight. But the best solution would be for the government to allocate specific seats for children on repatriation flights or arrange nurses/child safety officers in each flight so all 209 can return at the earliest,” Ms Sandhu recommended.
What about children of temporary visa holders?
For Perth-based temporary visa holder Pragna Patel, no door remains open.
Pragna Patel with her son and husband. Source: Supplied by Pragna Patel
This dependent student visa holder can’t stop worrying about her three-year-old son who is stranded in a village near Gandhinagar in Gujarat on the western coast of India.
The 35-year-old Ms Patel claims her predicament is worse than that of families with Australian passports or permanent visas whose children are also stuck in India.
“While the Opposition is questioning the government about children of Australian families and permanent residents, there are many families on temporary visas onshore whose kids are also stuck in India,” she said.
“If we travel to bring our son back, there’s no way for us to return to Australia. On the other hand, it’s nearly impossible to get an exemption for one of his grandparents. I want to urge the Australian government to give us special permission to travel to India so we can bring back our children,” said the desperate mother.
*Name changed upon request.
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