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ABC News
ABC News
National
political reporter Jade Macmillan

Foreign Minister flags more India repatriation flight 'challenges' as stranded Australians call for extra services

Eighty repatriated Australians arrived in Darwin from India on Saturday morning, after almost half the flight was not allowed to board. (AAP: Royal Australian Air Force/Stewart Gould)

Australians stuck in India have called for more repatriation flights as authorities prepare for a second trip following last week's half empty service.

About 70 of the passengers who were booked on the first flight after the India travel ban was lifted were left behind when a number of them tested positive to COVID-19.

Qantas is standing by the testing process, saying it has rerun the tests and obtained the same results.

Manpreet Kaur had been hoping to get seats on a second flight, which is leaving for Darwin this weekend, but has been told it is already fully booked.

She travelled to India earlier this year to bring home her three-year-old son, who had been staying with family.

"My son, he wants to go outside. He always cries because he doesn't know what is going on everywhere. So we are really very scared.

"They should do more flights. They should do two flights per week at least."

Manpreet Kaur is desperate to return home with her son Parvaaz Singh. (Supplied)

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said this week's flight would arrive in Darwin this Sunday, with a third service following on May 31.

"It's a very difficult environment to operate in, but we're working very hard to assist those Australians who wish to return to Australia," she told Nine Radio.

"The challenges that we've seen in the last week on that first return flight, I'm sure they won't be isolated.

"But we will continue to deal with those and be very careful and very mindful of the medical advice in all of this."

Prime Minister Scott Morrison previously said New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland had also offered to accept facilitated flights this month.

Call for clearer information about flight options

Ria Wadhwani says many Australians in India are in an "appalling" situation. (Supplied)

About 9,000 Australians are registered as wanting to return home from India, with around 900 considered by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to be "vulnerable".

Ria Wadhwani has been living in India since 2019 and runs an online support group for other Australians trying to get back.

She said many Australians were facing "appalling" situations as India's COVID-19 crisis continued.

She said she believed there were many more people who should be considered vulnerable.

"DFAT, the Australian High Commission, the government needs to understand that at this point there's much high numbers than that 900," she said.

Ms Wadhwani also called for more repatriation flights and said Australians in India needed to be given clearer information about their options to return.

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