Winnipeg mom finding it impossible to get toddler home from India during COVID-19 pandemic

A Winnipeg mother says she's at her wit's end trying to get her toddler home from India during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ashley Singh says her toddler, Drake, left for a 45-day stay with his grandparents at the beginning of March, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Now, after nearly four months, she's wondering when she'll be able to see her son again.

At the time he left with her in-laws, she said they didn't know COVID-19 would become a widespread pandemic that would close borders and ground flights around the world.

Drake was supposed to return to Canada with his grandparents in April, but all of their flights have been cancelled.

Finally, they were booked on a Lufthansa flight set to leave New Delhi on July 7. But when they went to check in, the airline wouldn't let them through, despite having all the necessary paperwork to fly, Singh said.

According to the federal government's website, Canadian citizens and immediate family members of Canadian citizens or permanent residents are allowed to enter Canada during the pandemic.

'We don't understand'

Singh said her in-laws brought several documents along to show that they were family members, including her son's birth certificate, her marriage certificate, and a letter from her saying they were his grandparents. Singh said the agents didn't even look at the paperwork that her in-laws tried to provide.

"They just saw that my in-laws have Indian passports and they're like, 'nope, you can't fly, you're not allowed,'" she said.

"We don't understand. If they meet all of the criteria, why were they turned away?"

She said she's contacted everyone she can think of from the airline and different government agencies to try to figure out why they weren't allowed on the plane and askfor help getting her son home, but says she feels like her pleas are falling on deaf ears.

"Excuse my language, but what the hell am I supposed to do?" she said.

"When you talk to people like the airlines and stuff, they try to be empathetic. But at the same time you can kind of tell that they're like, 'Don't really care. It's not my problem, not my kid. Too bad for you.'"

Airline looking into matter

Tal Muscal, Lufthansa's director of communications for the Americas, said this is the first he has heard of the Singhs' situation and he will investigate the matter with hiscolleagues in India.

"We of course are all eager to reunite Drake with his family," he said, but the airline needs "more information to understand why he and his grandparents were not able to board their flight."

A spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada said that while they couldn't comment on specific incidents due to privacy concerns, the department is doing everything it can to help Canadiansstranded in India under these "unprecedented circumstances."

However, the spokesperson said flights that aren't organizedbythe High Commission of Canada in India are subject to the boarding rules andeligibility requirements of the airline and local authorities, not the government of Canada.

Thoughpassengers do not require authorization from the embassy to take any relief flights, they areresponsible for verifying their eligibility to travel through other countries.

Singh said her in-laws had lived with her and her husband and helped take care of their son before, and thought Drake's 45-day stay would be a good experience for them.

She and her husband were also finding it challenging to find child care at the time, and one of them would have had to quit their job in order to take care of him.

"That's mainly why we let Drake go with them, was because we knew that he would be well taken care of, and we didn't really have another choice."

She said she knows her son is in good hands with his grandparents, but still worries about him being overseas during a pandemic.

"You just never know what could go on in another country, especially overseas. Things can get volatile very fast."

At this point, she and her husband are trying to book her son and his grandparents on another flight.

Tickets have been very expensive, however, and they're worried about shelling out money for another flightonly to have their hopes dashed yet again.