The number of Australian children stuck in India without their parents has reached 209, as the government faces renewed scrutiny to return citizens amid the country's coronavirus catastrophe.
The figure was revealed in Senate estimates as Labor Senator Penny Wong scolded the federal government over its failure to establish quarantine capacity to more quickly return Australians home.
Officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade appeared before the estimates hearing on Thursday morning alongside Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne.
"Do you ever take responsibility?" Senator Wong asked Senator Payne of the government's repatriation efforts.
"You dragged your feet on national quarantine just like you're dragging your feet on the rollout of the vaccine."
DFAT officials told the hearing that 10,994 Australians remain stranded in India wishing to return home, including 1,024 classified as vulnerable.
Eight repatriation flights have helped return some 1,500 Australians from India since the travel ban ended last month.
Senator Payne hit back at the criticism over the government's response - saying it had returned hundreds of thousands of Australians home since the pandemic begun in March last year.
"We will continue to work to roll those flights into Howard Springs to maximise the number of people we can return from India at this time," she said. 
There have been three flights to Darwin's Howard Springs quarantine facility from India, and five separate flights to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne speaks during Senate Estimates at Parliament House in Canberra. Source: AAP
The committee heard the current coronavirus case load in India has reached 28 million.
DFAT official Lynette Wood said a further three flights were scheduled to return from India before the end of June.
She said the department was working hard to bring children home.
"We are supporting them - they are with family - we are wanting to reunite families and that is our objective," she said.
Officials could not provide a timeline for when vulnerable Australians in India would return, with the estimates hearing told demand for mercy flights continues to outstrip capacity.
"The plan is to give them access to every single flight which we organise and give them the first opportunity to be on those planes and to offer them every support to be on those planes," Ms Wood said.
Senator Wong also took issue with Ms Wood's description that this timeframe would be dependent on the decisions of those in India.
"I understand the argument but you have a supply and demand problem," she said.
"There are not enough places in quarantine and not enough places on the plane."
Officials told the committee there remained 35,128 Australians registered with DFAT around the world wishing to return to Australia, including 4,260 listed as vulnerable.
The United Kingdom, United States, Philippines and Thailand were the top five destinations for Australians wanting to return home.
The federal government is currently considering a proposal from Victoria to establish a quarantine facility in the state.
