Sydney removalists who travelled to Orange with Covid speak out

Three removalists who travelled to western NSW while infectious claim they are not to blame for potentially spreading Covid.

Three removalists who travelled to western NSW while positive with COVID-19 claim they are not to blame for potentially spreading the virus across the state, after being labelled “thoughtless” by the government.

Iraqi immigrants Roni and Ramsin Shawka, 27, and Maryo Shanki, 21, were in the middle of a delivery at Orange, in the state’s west, on Friday morning, when they received a call from NSW Health to say one had tested positive.

But it is alleged the trio and a colleague continued into Molong – 30 minutes away – to finish the delivery.

Iraqi immigrant Roni Shawka, 27, has been charged by NSW Police who allege he continued on with his removalist delivery after receiving a call from NSW Health to say he had tested positive to Covid-19. Picture: Instagram

Ramsin Shawka also received a call on Friday morning to say he had tested positive to Covid-19 less than an hour after his twin brother. Picture: Facebook

NSW Police have now charged the Shawka twins and Shanki with failing to comply with the public health orders introduced for COVID-19, while the fourth member of their team has tested negative to the virus.

All three are now set to face Orange Local Court on August 30, despite Roni Shawka insisting it was not his “fault” - while the business owner who hired them blamed the language barrier for the miscommunication.

“Of course I feel very bad, I feel very bad for what I [have] done, but it’s not my fault …” Shawka said.

“I was driving and he call[ed] me from the health [department], he told me to stop working and go home, I was already in Orange.

“I gave them the number of my boss, I told them my language is not very good.

“I [did] not kill someone … I was [doing] my work, I swear to god I didn’t know [I was positive].”

The four men, who are private contractors but regularly work for a big western Sydney removal firm, began their job on Thursday with a trip to Figtree near Wollongong, to collect belongings for the customer’s move.

After returning to Sydney that night their casual employer Aram Yousif insisted they get a COVID-19 test as essential workers.

Under the public health orders, essential workers only need to isolate if they are showing symptoms, but all three men claim that even today they continue to feel fully fit.

The men were charged by police for breaching public health orders.

At 4am on Friday the contagious trio and their colleague set off down the M4 for Molong, stopping in South Bowenfels and Orange, where at 9.36am Roni Shawka was the first to receive a call from NSW Health.

With the language barrier presenting an issue he claims he passed Mr Yousif’s number onto NSW health.

Mr Yousif said he received a call from NSW Health telling them that Roni needed to isolate in the cabin of the removal truck and that he needed to notify their recent customers.

But, he claims, he was never told to tell the other men in the removal crew to isolate.

“These guys have not broken any rules,” Mr Youssif said.

“The premier said do the test and go back to your daily life if you have no symptoms. I told them to get that test, they would not have done it otherwise.

“We just followed the instruction, we have not done anything wrong by the public … [but] whatever a court decides we will accept.”

When over the next hour-and-a-half Ramsin Shawka and Maryo Shanki returned positive tests, NSW Health ordered a NSW Police escort which arrived in Molong about 2.30pm and returned the men and their trucks to western Sydney.

Despite the claims of the men and their employer, their alleged actions were slammed by Police Minister David Elliott.

“This thoughtless act has now placed our regional communities in NSW at the greatest risk so far with this pandemic,” Mr Elliott said.

“We know that the delta variant is highly transmissible, and it is unfathomable to think that, with all the public information and health warnings, people could [allegedly] so blatantly ignore the health orders.”

But Mr Elliott said they were not the only alleged offenders, dubbing a group of seven males at Guildford “dopes” for gathering at a park and then claiming when approached by police that they were all playing a game of soccer – despite no one having a soccer ball.

NSW Health has been contacted for comment regarding the removalists while NSW Police refused to comment, saying the matter was now before the courts.