Highlights
- Over 8,000 Australian citizens, residents are stranded in India, many of whom are minor children stuck without their parents
- Parents of young children call the Australian government to remove arrival caps or send mercy flights to India
- Morrison government has flagged lifting the caps, but no announcement has been made so far
As the coronavirus crisis intensifies in India, Prerna Bassi spends every waking moment scouring the news hoping for a government lifeline amid a growing influx of Australians desperate to return home, one of whom is her son Evaan.
The 34-year-old mum had left him in the care of his grandparents in Delhi for a few months in August 2019 had plans to fly him back in March this year.
'Please bring my son home'
Ms Bassi is now appealing the federal government to cut the red tape and send mercy flights to bring her son home.
“I and my husband left Evaan in the care of his grandparents in Delhi last year and came back with our older son because we didn’t want Evaan to spend his time at daycare while both I and my husband would be at work.
“We had decided that he would spend a few months with his grandparents and then they would bring him back in March this year,” she said.
But Ms Bassi’s plan was upended by the sudden coronavirus crisis that prompted the government to impose a travel ban on foreign nationals preventing them from coming into the country and on its citizens and permanent residents banning them from leaving the country.
Prerna Bassi with her husband Rahul and their sons Evaan and Ekaansh. Source: Supplied
“So, we are now stuck in a way that my parents cannot come here with Evaan because they aren’t getting an exemption approval, while my husband Rahul has an exemption, but we cannot decide if it would be a good idea to travel to India.
“If he goes, he will be stuck there too because there are hardly any return flights from India at the moment. And even if they are announced, there are far too many people vying for a limited number of seats on those flights thanks to the cap on arrivals.
Either remove the cap or send planes to bring our children home.
National Cabinet flags boost to international arrival caps:
Out of the 23,000 Australians stranded overseas, more than 8,000 are stuck in India, some of whom are minor children separated from their parents.
Sending a wave of hope, Prime Minister Scott Morrison made the announcement following a national cabinet meeting on Friday, flagging state and territory leaders had agreed the 4,000 per week cap on international arrivals should be lifted.
"On international arrivals, it was agreed that we needed to further boost the capacity for inbound arrivals into Australia, particularly for those Australians seeking to come home," said Mr Morrison.
But despite the agreement, there has been no announcement about how much the cap could be lifted by or when it would happen.
Labor shadow home affairs minister Kristina Keneally said stranded Australians are in “dire circumstances” and the government isn’t doing enough to bring them home.
She said the opposition has put forth a plan in the Senate calling on the Morrison government to boost the cap on arrivals.
“We put a plan before the Senate to call on the Government to temporarily increase the cap to allow international arrivals, to allow people to come home, to stop price gouging by airlines that fly to Australia and to put all options on the table including sending out charter flights to bring home these stranded Australians,” Ms Keneally said during a press conference for multicultural media earlier today.
'We need urgent help'
Melbourne-based Gagandeep Singh Gill’s two daughters aged four and five are also stuck in India.
The 30-year-old single parent who returned to Australia on 5 March said they were supposed to return with their grandmother two weeks later but got stranded by the border closure.
Since then, Mr Gill has been trying for an exemption for his elderly mother which he finally got a few days ago, but despite that their chances of return remain slim.
Ggagndeep Singh Gill with his daughters Hannah And Mannat (L); Exemption approval for Mr Gill's mum. Source: Supplied
“I would need a visa to travel to India because I don’t have an OCI card. So, we applied for a travel exemption for my mother instead, which we received a few days ago.
“Now we have the exemption, but they still can’t fly back as there are no flights available. The ones that were announced by the Indian government were all sold out within minutes, leaving us with no choice but to wait until the next phase of flights is announced,” he said.
On Monday, India reported 4.2 million coronavirus cases, surpassing Brazil as the country with the second-highest number of infections in the world.
Worried at the prospect of his daughters contracting infection, Mr Gill said the government must send mercy flights to prioritise the return of children who are stuck in India without their parents.
“The Australian government should help us to bring them back to Australia. We would have never left them had we known that the situation would turn from bad to worse. India is in bad shape right now. Please help us in uniting with our children,” he added.
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