Shemsiya Wako Waritu is no stranger to receiving racist remarks.
A Muslim woman of Ethiopian descent, Ms Waritu has lived in Australia for about 10 years, and has become a mentor for others who share her faith.
But when a group of strangers told her and her daughter to “go back to where you came from”, she decided against reporting it.
“To me the best thing to do was to be quiet and leave, so we did,” she told SBS News. “We just left. And then I just keep telling her about my own country experience and how much this country gave me.”
They arrived in December, before the current outbreak, but Vamshi is furious that the information he provided about his motherâs condition was enough for his exit exemption but not enough for her to be allowed to travel to Australia to stay with them.
âI am fighting an avoidable war. I would have been happily living in Australia amidst this second wave in India if my mother was given exemption,â Vamshi said.
Now the three of them are stuck in the middle of Indiaâs devastating outbreak.
Vamshi, 32, fears for his familyâs safety if they contract Covid. His in-laws and one of his uncles has contracted coronavirus, and his aunt died from the virus recently.
‘Rejected and betrayed’: Australians stranded in India speak of heartbreak Elias Visontay and Naaman Zhou
The backlash has been fierce in the days since the Australian government moved to make it a criminal offence for its citizens to return from Covid-ravaged India.
Members of the Morrison government have denounced their own policy, while medical experts and international human rights groups, including the United Nations, have called for an immediate reversal of the Biosecurity Act determination.
Here are some of their stories.
Shruthi and Vamshi Parepalli – stranded in Hyderabad
Melbourne man Vamshi Parepalli had been desperately trying to get an exemption to allow his mother, who is not an Australian citizen or permanent resident, to enter Australia during the pandemic to be with him and his wife Shruthi.
COVID-19 infections in India are rising faster than anywhere else in the world, with the nation surpassing 20 million cases - which experts say may be an underestimate.
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Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has called for a nationwide lockdown as the country s tally of coronavirus infections surged past 20 million, becoming the second nation after the United States to pass the grim milestone.
India s deadly second wave of infections, the world s biggest surge in coronavirus infections, has seen it take just over four months to add 10 million cases, versus more than 10 months for its first 10 million.
Currently, the country has 3.45 million active cases.
On Tuesday, India reported 357,229 new cases over the last 24 hours, while deaths rose 3449 for a toll of 222,408, health ministry data showed.
Medical experts say actual numbers in India could be five to 10 times higher than those reported.