Love in Times of COVID: What About Transnational Couples Like Us?

Important changes need to be made to the ways families and relationships are viewed internationally.

Rashmi and Loïc saw each other last in January. 

(Photo: Arnica Kala/Aroop Mishra/The Quint)

Video Editor: Ashutosh Bhardwaj
Video Producer: Aliza Noor
Illustrations: Arnica Kala

Owing to the coronavirus pandemic and consequent halt on international flights, my fiancé and I haven’t been able to meet each other since January 2020.

The plan was to see each other in India on 12 March, but on the day of Loïc’s departure from France, he received a call from Air India that informed him that he would not be allowed to travel to India.

Loïc and I have been in a long-term relationship for over five years now.

Rashmi and Loic at their home in Australia.(Photo Courtesy: Rashmi Rangarajan)

We lived together for about a year in Melbourne, Australia till December 2019 where we got our civil relationship registered with the Victorian Government. We then got engaged in the presence of our families and friends in India in December.

We were supposed to have a registered marriage in India in April 2020. Couples like us, around the world, who are not married but are in serious long-term relationships have been unable to reunite because of short-sighted international travel rules.

The duo got engaged in December 2019 in Dehradun.(Photo Courtesy: Rashmi Rangarajan)

The journey hasn't been easy because all these months we have felt strained mentally as well as financially. Even though we have technological advantages, like having Facebook and WhatsApp, which Loïc and I use frequently to communicate with each other, the place where I am currently residing in has internet connectivity issues.

There were days, sometimes weeks that would go by, when Loïc and I wouldn’t get to talk to each other. That became very stressful and an emotional strain for us.

There were a of things that we share and one of those things being our finances. Because COVID-19 is a crisis, and Loïc is an independent filmmaker, his enterprise practically came to a standstill.

#LoveIsEssential

We found this international movement called '#LoveIsNotToursim,' '#LoveIsEssential,' and that has really helped us in finding other couples in the same boat.

The campaign moves to help allow progressive changes to international travel rules so that couples, including same-sex couples, are reunited. Already, countries like Austria, Croatia and Norway are allowing non-EU/EEA individuals to rejoin their partners in these respective countries.

#LoveIsNotTourism has helped Rashmi and Loic to realise there are many more couples in similar situations. (Photo: Screengrab/https://loveisnottourism.org/)

“The EU has allowed only a few countries to come and if you are not married it’s very complicated to get requests accepted. Slowly, we are trying to contact the government, getting maximum signatures for petitions to allow especially unmarried couples to see each other.”

Loïc

We would also like to appeal to both the French and Indian authorities in enabling us to safely reunite. There needs to be important changes to the ways families and relationships are viewed internationally.

Coronavirus isn't going to go anywhere anytime soon. It's going to stay with us, so we need to find more effective and adaptive ways of dealing with it and come up with more progressive and inclusive travel rules.

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