The heartbroken parents of a young woman who took her own life after being denied entry into Western Australia to see her family have spoken out against the cruel border closures that prevented their reunion.
Gillian and Alain D’Argent have revealed the ongoing pain they suffer having not been able to comfort their daughter Robin, who had been struggling with post-traumatic stress and depression.
The beauty consultant, 31, was refused entry into Perth in October and November of this year, after she moved to Sydney to start a new chapter in her life.
While interstate and away from her parents, Robin was professionally diagnosed with mental health problems, and after being prevented from reuniting with family she took her own life on December 1.
WA has remained tightly closed to areas it defines as Covid hotspots, recently slamming its door on NSW residents after the state was deemed an ‘extreme risk’.
Robin’s grief-stricken parents believe their daughter would still be alive if not for Mark McGowan’s harsh border measures.
‘We believe that if she had been able to come through to Perth on a holiday we could have changed the situation,’ Mr D’Argent told 9News.
In a cruel twist, the couple are now stranded in Sydney and unable to enter WA themselves after they flew east to organise their daughter’s possessions and collect her ashes.
The D’Argent’s have also been knocked back twice by WA authorities in their attempts to obtain G2G passes and bring Robin home.
‘Absolutely devastated, it’s an extra stress that you’ve got on you that you shouldn’t have, it’s become a more stressful situation,’ Mr D’Argent said.
The grieving father told Perth’s 6PR radio that they had only received Robin’s ashes and death certificate on December 16, making it almost impossible to get a flight back before the border slammed shut two days later.
‘It’s not like we’ve come to Sydney for a holiday, we have come to deal with our daughter’s death which is traumatic enough, and we can’t even get home and try to start a life with the knowledge that our daughter’s no more with us,’ he said.
The couple have since experienced a break-through in their plight to return to Perth after being granted a last minute travel exemption on Monday night.
The D’Argent’s will be forced to grieve the loss of the daughter while undergoing 14-day hotel quarantine in Perth across the Christmas period.
Friends and family took to social media to send messages of support to the grief-stricken parents, one saying Robin went ‘too early in life’.
‘I miss you and love you so much. I wish I could turn back time,’ one of the beauty consultant’s friends wrote on Facebook.