Two teenagers left on one of the last flights out of Armenia. Now their parents are stranded - CNN

By Hilary Whiteman

Arpy Kardashian sleeps with the phone under her pillow so she doesn't miss a call from her children. She's in Armenia, they're in Australia.

The family didn't intend to be separated for more than a couple of weeks, but they are now in their fifth month apart.

Kardashian, her husband Harry Soghomonian, and their 10-month old baby Arpy Jr are in the Armenian capital, Yerevan.

Their teenage children, Harmig, 14, and Anita, 13, are living with their uncle 13,430 kilometers (8,345 miles) away in Brisbane, Australia.

"At the end of school, I see all these kids going home to their parents, you know, happy and I go home, just sad," Harmig told CNN Travel.

Kardashian -- a distant relative of the famous American family -- shared her story on the Facebook page "Aussie Expats Abandoned Overseas." "It feels like we've been living in hell for the past five months and writing it all down feels like reliving it again," she wrote.

The couple and their baby are among 18,800 Australian citizens and residents locked out of the country by coronavirus flight cancellations and border closures.

Their decision to move from Armenia to Australia predates the pandemic, but it has thrown the plans they had for a new life into flux.

Kardashian is a youth worker who moved from Melbourne to Armenia a little over three years ago to help troubled teens. At the time, her children were aged 10 and 11. Last December, the family decided to move back to Australia. Their project was ending, and they booked flights for March.

By February, coronavirus cases were rising in Armenia, a tiny former Soviet country of around three million people that borders Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

Residents were ordered to wear masks and gloves, but Kardashian said that some didn't take it seriously.

"People were sharing masks and sharing gloves. They'd see someone they know, take off the mask and kiss each other... then they put the mask back on, so they didn't get fined," she said. "It's a cultural thing. They don't greet each other with a handshake, they greet each other with a kiss."

Schools had shut and, as the teens couldn't go anywhere anyway, their parents decided to put them on the plane to Australia on March 17. They were still trying to get Armenian documents for the baby and planned to follow two weeks later.

But straight after the children departed, Armenia shut its borders.

The children were on one of the last flights out.

Months passed and the couple couldn't do anything but wait for news that the borders were reopening. In June, planes started flying between Armenia and Belarus, Kardashian said.

Two flights they booked to Australia were canceled.

A third on July 27 promised to take them home via Minsk, Paris and Dubai.

Months passed and the couple couldn't do anything but wait for news that the borders were reopening. In June, planes started flying between Armenia and Belarus, Kardashian said.

Two flights they booked to Australia were canceled.

A third on July 27 promised to take them home via Minsk, Paris and Dubai.

Harmig and Anita had been excited to see their parents after school on the day of their scheduled arrival, but they didn't show up.

"I felt like sort of betrayed," said Harmig. "At first, I thought, why did you guys lie to us?"

They now understand the problems their parents are facing, but it doesn't make it any easier.

"Sometimes you just sit down, and you cry, and you wish your mom could be there," Anita said.

Coronavirus border rules and flight cancellations have thrown the aviation industry into chaos.

Flights to Australia, especially, aren't easy to find. The government has imposed a cap on returning residents and citizens to ease pressure on the hotel quarantine system.

Only 4,000 people are allowed to enter the country each week, creating a backlog of travelers trying to get home. New arrivals are immediately ferried to city hotels to spend 14 days in isolation.

The flight caps are slated to remain in place until October 24, though the government has said they'll be reviewed every two weeks.

Anita found an online petition that is calling for the government to lift the cap on arrivals. She's sent it to the teachers at her new school, in the hope it'll help get her parents back.

She's under 16, so can't sign it herself.

"They can't just stay there forever. They're going to come (but) I have a feeling it's going to be in 2021, because there's only four months left till this year finishes," she said.