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Horror 48-hour ordeal has happy ending for Echuca-Moama visitors
A WRONG turn has turned into a horror 48-hour ordeal for three visiting families from Melbourne.
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On Saturday, January 2, Dhanasekhar Vel, his family and friends (six adults and seven children) were visiting Echuca for a day trip, which quickly became a nightmare.
The families said they made a “genuine mistake” by turning into Moama about 2.30pm and once realising they were in NSW, immediately tried to cross the border back into Victoria.
However, they were denied re-entry as the border had slammed shut.
Mr Vel insisted neither he nor anyone else left their cars.
The families finally received an exemption to return home on Monday night before leaving the following morning.
But a 14-day home quarantine period and COVID-19 test were waiting for them.
“We have granted an exemption to a Victorian family who inadvertently crossed the border into NSW at Echuca over the weekend but were refused re-entry to Victoria as they are not residents of a border LGA,” a Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson told the Riverine Herald on Monday.
With the families in an unknown environment where they weren’t sure what to do, Mr Vel described the situation as a “nightmare”.
“We called DHHS at about 6pm on Saturday night and spoke to a couple of different people,” he said.
“We then spoke to someone for about an hour and 15 minutes and they said they would get back to us in the next 30 to 40 minutes.
“It got to about 9pm and we still hadn’t heard anything back, so we decided to find a motel for the night. We had been warned we might need to do that by the person we spoke to.
“We attempted to cross with a permit for a second time, but the police told us they had expired and couldn’t be used.
“Everyone we were with was starting to worry because we had to go back to work on Monday.
“Two of the children have asthma and we didn’t have enough medication with us because we had only planned to be here for a few hours.”
At the checkpoint, Mr Vel said he “felt intimidated” by some members of Victoria Police.
“The police at the checkpoint were rude and aggressive. The first time we tried to cross, they told us we had to turn around and not come back,” he said.
“We were told to pull over to the side of the road which I was doing, and they started yelling and demanding I stop.
“We tried a second time after getting the permits, but they were aggressive again. They demanded we show some identification for our children.
“They weren’t prepared to listen to our side of the story when we had made a genuine mistake.
“We were even willing to show them we had been on the paddlesteamers just an hour earlier. We had kept the receipts and tickets from our trip.
“The situation made us feel like we were criminals.”
When contacted by the Riv, Victoria Police said it could not comment about specific incidents at border checkpoints.
With nowhere to go, the three families were eventually taken in by the Riverpark Motel in Moama.
In fact, the families were the only people staying there.
Everyone else had made a mad dash to get across the border after the Victorian Government’s announcement on New Year’s Eve.
“We only had the clothes we were wearing,” Mr Vel said.
“You don’t expect to find yourself in this type of situation. We’re very thankful to the staff and everything they did for us.
“We’re very relieved to be going home now.”
Riverpark Motel manager Michael Acquino said he was more than happy to do his part to help the families out.
“They had their phones glued to their hands,” he said.
“You could see just how stressed they were, and it only grew with each passing minute.
“I’m glad we were able to offer them a place to stay because I couldn’t imagine the stress they were under.”
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