A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson confirmed Australian officials remain in contact with the bereaved family but declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding the man’s death.
“The Australian Government is providing consular assistance to the family of an Australian permanent resident whose death was reported to our High Commission in India,” the spokesperson told 9News.com.au.
“Australia’s High Commission and consulates general in India continue to assist Australians in need”.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne confirmed the death yesterday but did not detail the circumstances surrounding the man’s death.
A Sydney woman who identified herself as the man’s daughter said both of her parents contracted COVID-19 in India and claimed the Australian High Commission in Delhi “did nothing more than call my mother once in a while”.
“With a very heavy heart and pain I need to inform you that my father has left us, for his journey in heavens,” the woman who did not want to be identified wrote on social media.
“Now all I have left is my mother, who has been abandoned by her own government in India, [with] no way to come back to her children.
“We all want to cry our hearts out, but we are saving them for when we are all together again.
In the now deleted post, she pleaded for assistance in getting her mother back to Australia.
“Please save your own humanity, by doing the right thing.”
“[My father] got the email from the Australian government regarding the new rule and everything. He was sick, and in that condition, receiving this news really panicked him,” she told SBS.
She said he had become a permanent resident more than 10 years ago and that he had not qualified to become a citizen as he travelled back and forth to manage a hotel in India.
The woman is an Australian citizen, along with her brother and mother.
This comes as India records 401,078 new cases and 4187 coronavirus related deaths in the last 24 hours.
Ms Payne extended her sympathies to the family.
“I don’t think it’s helpful to speculate and particularly out of respect for the family,” Ms Payne told 2GB.
“I will receive further advice from our posts in India in relation to that.
“But most importantly let me extend my sympathy and that of the government to the family of this person, and to so many families that we know are dealing with what is an extraordinary challenge with infection rates surging over 400,000 infections a day at the moment in India.
“There are very many families dealing with this challenge.”
Indian Air Force lands in Perth to take emergency oxygen supplies home
The government is due to lift its controversial India travel ban and will start repatriating Australians this month.
This content first appear on 9news