The Prime Minister has expressed his heartfelt support for the widow who lost her husband and daughter in a terrible train crash last weekend, and has called on his Home Secretary to treat her family with generosity and compassion.
Anthony Albanese’s comments come after Daily Mail Australia revealed that Poonam Runwal would be deported following the Carlton train disaster, which killed her husband and young twin daughter.
She was relying on her husband’s work visa to stay in Australia, but that visa was due to expire next week.
Concerned local residents have shown their support for the mother who is left in grief in the country. Now the Prime Minister has also supported her cause.
“It is obviously a ministerial decision, but I believe these matters should be treated with the compassion that Australians expect from us,” Albanese said at a news conference on Thursday.
“This mother has had to watch her husband and one of her twin children tragically die. I would have thought that we are a generous country and that the hearts of Australians would go out to this woman and her young child.”
The broken family has sparked emotional reactions across the country after Mr Runwal died last Sunday during a heroic attempt to save the lives of his two twin daughters during a family outing.
The Runwals arrived at Carlton Station, in Sydney’s south, at about 12.25pm. They stepped out of the lift and onto the platform, when they briefly took their hands off the girls’ pram.
Anand Runwal (right) and his wife Poonam Runwal with their two-year-old twin daughters
Shocking CCTV footage shows the young family’s final moments together before they were torn apart in unimaginable tragedy when their stroller rolled onto the tracks
In a flash, their daughters’ stroller rolled away and landed on the railroad tracks.
Mr Runwal jumped over the tracks to save his daughters, but was hit by a passing train as he tried to get their pram back onto the platform.
One of the twins, Hinal, also died in the ordeal, while her twin sister miraculously survived after being rolled under the train.
New South Wales Police Commissioner Paul Dunstan said the parents appeared to have taken their hands off the pram for a “very short period” as it rolled towards the tracks.
According to Chief Dunstan, an investigation is underway to determine what caused the stroller to roll. It could be something as simple as a “gust of wind.”
The family moved to Sydney from India in October 2023 after Mr Runwal found a job at IT company Infosys on a skilled worker visa.
His visa was due to expire on August 1 and he was in the process of getting it extended.
Five weeks ago, Mr Runwal asked on Facebook for advice on the procedure for obtaining expedited passports so that he could complete the application.
‘My visa expires on August 1, 2024, while my passport is [an] “Expiration date February 2025,” he wrote.
‘According to my employer, my passport must be valid for at least 12 months from today to renew my visa.’
Because she was listed as a dependent on her husband’s work visa, Ms Runwal’s right to remain in Australia is now in jeopardy as she grapples with this heartbreaking tragedy.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Department of Home Affairs for a response to the Prime Minister’s comments.
Police investigate the scene of the horrific tragedy in Sydney’s south
Despite the outpouring of support from across the country, Ms Runwal’s family have appealed to the public not to attempt to raise funds for them online. They fear that online scammers could take advantage of the tragic deaths of her husband and daughter by setting up fake accounts and stealing money from genuine supporters.
Instead, Mr Runwal’s employer, Infosys, has been helping the family with their current expenses and arranging all funeral arrangements.
Westpac, where her husband worked as an IT consultant at Infosys, also offered her additional support.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns, who lives less than 100 metres from the station, said the father died in an “extraordinary, instinctive act of bravery”.
“He gave his own life to save his children,” he said.