Malaysian families separated by pandemic wait to be reunited

Chin holds a sign as he waits to catch a glimpse of his wife Too and their daughter on the yacht. Photo: Too Xie Lian

It has been more than eight months since Johor-based Ezatul Hani, 26, has seen her husband Umarul Nazim, 26. He went to Singapore a day before the movement control order (MCO) was imposed in March, and couldn’t return because the borders were closed. Umarul works as a supervisor with a manufacturing company in Singapore and usually commutes to work daily from Johor, but is sometimes based in the island city-state for two weeks at a time.

The couple have a baby girl who was just a month old then. She is now nine months old.