Dilin was unable to hold back his emotions when he talked about his young daughter, who he has not seen since November 2019.

“I can certainly see the sorrow in her heart… she truly misses us,” he told an Australian Senate committee on Friday.

Johannah, 5, is one of at least 173 unaccompanied children who are stuck in India trying to return to Australia.

She was staying with her grandparents when the pandemic struck and borders were closed.

Johannah’s parents tried to get her on government-organized flights to Sydney, however, children younger than 14 are not allowed to travel alone on the repatriation trips.

Qantas, which operates flights between India and Australia, also does not allow unaccompanied minors, so the couple’s only other option is to charter a private plane or flies with Air India, however until recently Johanna was still too young.

Drisya and Dilin were finally able to get Johannah a seat on a chartered plane from Bangalore to Sydney, with a private company willing to take unaccompanied children.

It was due to arrive in Sydney on 6 May, however that flight was also cancelled when the Australian government brought in a controversial ban on all arrivals from India.

“It was our last hope, we have exhausted all options,” Dilin told the BBC. “We literally fell apart. Sometimes you get a ray of hope, but then there’s a setback like this,” he said.

Drisya and Dilin told their story to an Australian Senate committee that is investigating the government’s efforts to help stranded Australians return home from India.

Drisya told the hearing that there were seven other unaccompanied children on the privately chartered flight. The couple, who have connected with families in similar situations on social media, say many of the children are very young – some even younger than Johannah.

“I plead, on behalf of all of them, to please consider the option of bringing in minors unaccompanied, either through repatriation flights or even private chartered flights,” Dilin said.

Senior Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) official Lynette Wood said a flight specifically for children had not been considered, and that the government was working directly with families to try and bring children home. The BBC also approached the DFAT for comment on this article.

Australia’s High Commissioner to India Barry O’Farrell told the hearing 20 unaccompanied minors had been helped home since December.

‘Time we have lost’
The trio were living in Malaysia and visiting family in India when Drisya and Dilin left Johannah to spend a longer holiday with her grandparents in the southern state of Kerala. They went back to Malaysia and started making preparations to move to Sydney a few months later.