Point Cook couple’s fight to have baby Ziva Narang returned to Australia

A Melbourne couple’s baby was stranded in India when Australia’s borders closed due to coronavirus. The ABF rejected her right to travel home with her grandparents, but things changed when the Leader got involved.

Ziva Narang, 1, daughter of Point Cook couple Hardip and Muneet Narang, has been stranded in India since March.

A Point Cook family locked in a desperate battle to be reunited with their one-year-old daughter in India has been stunned by the Federal Government’s sudden backflip.

Hardip Narang reached out to the Leader after the Australian Border Force last week rejected his application to allow his ageing parents and youngest daughter, Ziva, an Australian citizen, to fly to Australia from Mumbai.

But on Monday evening, after the Leader contacted the ABF in the morning about Mr Narang’s case, the border authority made a stunning backflip.

Mr Narang said an ABF employee phoned him about 6pm to say permission for his parents to fly to Australia had suddenly been granted, despite the authority sending him an email just days earlier informing him it had rejected their application to travel.

“I had to fight for everything,” Mr Narang said on Tuesday morning.

“They could have done this in the first place.”

Mr Narang received this email from the ABF on Thursday, October 8.

But after the Leader contacted the ABF on Monday, Mr Narang said he received this email from the ABF notifying him it had changed its decision.

Mr Narang said his wife, Muneet, left their daughter in India in March to bond with her grandparents.

The intention was she would fly home soon afterwards with her grandparents when they travelled to Australia months later for a planned visit.

The onset of the pandemic meant his parents’ travel plans were cancelled, and Mr Narang said his pleas to the ABF to let them return with his child were initially ignored.

“I could travel but the thing is I would lose my job because I don’t know when I will be able to come back,” Mr Narang said.

“It (was) getting bad, because she’s our second daughter and my wife is really struggling. Last week was her birthday and we didn’t even celebrate.”

Mr Narang said he and his wife had missed important milestones, including watching their daughter take her first steps.

He said he was worried their eldest daughter, Osheen, 3, had been unable to bond with her baby sister, and he said if the decision by the ABF was made sooner it could have saved a lot of heartache.

He also called on border authorities to have more heart for families in similar situations to his.

“They should consider the stranded children away from family who have rights like any one of us,” Mr Narang said.

An ABF spokesperson said any request to travel to Australia was carefully assessed.

“Any additional information provided to the department, relating to a change in family circumstances, are considered when reviewing travel exemption decisions,” the spokesperson said.

“Any exemptions to Australia’s travel restrictions must be balanced against the Government’s intent in protecting the health of the Australian community.”

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