An Australian permanent resident has died in India after contracting COVID-19, ABC News reports.
The 59-year-old man passed away last week, within days of the federal government banning Australian citizens and permanent residents from returning home from India.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne confirmed the news and said the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will be reaching out to the family to provide any assistance they can give.
The daughter of the Australian man who passed away has since written an open letter addressed to Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Sydney woman Sonali Ralhan says her father was “abandoned” by our government.
“I write to you with so much anger brewing inside me,” Ms Ralhan wrote on Facebook.
“I am an Australian citizen and highly disappointed to be one today.
“What nation disowns their own citizens? (It) is a matter of wonder for the entire world.”
Ralhan says she contacted embassy officials in India a few weeks ago with “great hopes” that her parents, long-term residents of Australia, would be brought home, according to Seven News.
In a Facebook post on Thursday night, Sonali Ralhan revealed that her mother was still stuck in India.
“It is with a very heavy heart and pain I need to inform you that my father has left us,” she posted.
“Now all I have left is my mother, who has been abandoned by her own government of Australia.
“We all want to cry our hearts out, but we are saving them for when we are all together again.”
The ban is set to end next Saturday, with limited flights to then resume.
