'This is very disappointing for us because we had lodged our petition in August. After six months, this response is very disappointing,' says Rajesh Gulrajani who lost his father and father-in-law last year and is now struggling to bring his mother and mother-in-law to Australia from India.
Highlights:
- Due to the Covid-19 related travel ban, only immediate family members of Australian citizens or permanent resident is allowed to enter into Australia.
- Parents are not considered immediate family members.
- The Department of Home Affairs has told SBS there are "no plans" to change the rules.
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'Very disappointing': Australian government stands by decision to not consider parents as immediate family
SBS Hindi
10/02/202105:19
The Department of Home Affairs has told SBS in an emailed response that there are "no plans" to change the rules.
Due to the Covid-19 related travel ban, only the immediate family of an Australian citizen or permanent resident is allowed to enter Australia.
However, parents are not considered as immediate family.
Source: Supplied by Rajesh Gulrajani
The petition signed by over 11,000 people appealed to the Federal Government to change immediate family members' definition to include parents.
It was presented to the federal parliament by Liberal MP Celia Hammond.
The Home Affairs Minister's 90-day-deadline to respond to the petition passed on Tuesday, the date by which the Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton was asked to respond, but it was not compelled to.
When contacted by SBS News, the government was standing firm on the rule.
Source: Supplied by Rajesh Gulrajani
"The government acknowledges the difficulties with respect to extended families seeking to reunite; however, there are currently no plans to include parents in the definition of immediate family for the purpose of travel exemptions," it said.
The department provided Mr Dutton's response to the petitions committee last week, the spokesperson said.
Rajesh Gulrajani (third from right) with his family in India. Source: Supplied by Rajesh Gulrajani
"They are ignoring the mental health impact of the issue. They are ignoring what we are going through because it cannot be measured in numbers.
"But we cannot give up. We will continue to fight," said Mr Gulrajani.
Manav Jaggi from Adelaide also expressed his dismay.
"They gave birth to us and when they need us a most they are not with us just because of this law?" he said.
"How can we convince ourselves and be in this trauma? It is giving mental and emotional stress to many of us and our health and personal life is getting disturbed! We're requesting government and decision-makers to rethink and give us justice so that our parents can reunite!"
Mr Jaggi says his mother is stuck in India and cannot travel back.
Manav Jaggi with his family. Source: Supplied by Manav Jaggi
"She went to India last year just to comply with her visa condition to be offshore for her 870 long term parent visa and got stuck due to pandemic and now government is not giving exemption to her to come back and exemption got rejected 25 times," said Mr Jaggi.
