The mother of Tyronne White, who remains unaccounted for in Nepal 10 days after the country was ravaged by an earthquake, has slammed the government over a lack of information.
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Margaret White, who lives in Shellharbour, says Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has been more concerned about Bail Nine members Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran than her son.
‘‘All she’s worried about’s the Bail Nine crap ... I’m just a nothing to her,’’ Ms White said.
‘‘I don’t know whether she knows about it or not but she’s been emailed by [Throsby MP] Stephen Jones’ office.
‘‘I Facebooked her on her page and I’ve had no response from her, none; that’s what’s making me angry.’’
Ms White said the ‘‘not knowing’’ was of biggest concern to the family – angst further triggered by an earlier government statement that all Australians in Nepal had been accounted for.
‘‘I’ve emailed [Tyronne], I’ve Facebooked him; I know it’s hard to get anything [communication] out of Kathmandu but all we can do is try,’’ she said.
‘I’m hoping he’s just oblivious to all this, out in the middle of nowhere and when he gets back to Kathmandu he’s going to say ‘What the hell’s happened here?’.’’
The 44-year-old, who was born in Wollongong, was last seen in the small village of Langtang by another traveller two days before the 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck on April 25. The village no longer exists.
‘‘We’re just all devastated you know ... we can sort of hope, but that hope’s fading,’’ Tyronne’s aunt Joy Patek said.
‘‘They [the government] haven’t been in touch with the parents at all.’’
In a statement, a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said 1465 Australians, including permanent residents, in Nepal had been accounted for.
‘‘However, DFAT is gravely concerned for the welfare of an Australian who is currently unaccounted for in Nepal,’’ the statement said.
‘‘Officials in Canberra and Nepal have been providing consular assistance to the man’s family in Australia.
‘‘We have deployed a team of officials to travel to Langtang village, the Australian man’s last known location, to supplement the two Australian officials already in the region.
‘‘We are liaising closely with Nepalese authorities and with officials from other countries, including the US, UK, Canada and Spain, to broaden and co-ordinate our ongoing efforts to confirm the welfare of the Australian man.’’
Nepali police and local volunteers had found the bodies of about 100 trekkers and villagers buried in an avalanche triggered by the earthquake and were digging through snow and ice for signs of dozens more missing, officials said.
The trekkers’ bodies were recovered at the weekend at the Langtang village, 60 kilometres north of Kathmandu.
The dead included at least seven foreigners but only two have been identified.