Of the 601 people still missing in Nepal, 36 are Australian, including friends Karan Bhardwaj, Arpan Mithalal Kothari and Bhavin Raval, who were travelling together with Kailash Journeys when disaster struck.

This Father’s Day, their family members are calling for transparency from Kailash Journeys and full co-operation from authorities as their questions remain unanswered.

“This Sunday is Father’s Day in Australia. While children across the country wake up to hug their dads, Karan and Bhavin’s children will wake up with their fathers still missing,” a statement shared by the families read.

“They need their dads home.”

Mr Bhardwaj has a seven-year-old son, while Mr Raval is a father of two.

The families’ statement described how they were living an unimaginable nightmare, noting that in addition to the heartbreak they have experienced since losing communication with their loved ones, they were also angry, demanding answers from Kailash Journeys about the group’s last known movements.

“We want answers from Kailash Journeys. We want a complete and transparent account of the group’s final movements: who last saw them, what was known when contact was lost, and what was done in those critical first hours,” the statement said.

“Every delay matters. Every hour matters. These are human lives, and families are waiting.”

They also called for Nepali and Chinese authorities to co-operate fully, explaining that if any information – whether it be phone data, CCTV footage or witness accounts – exists that could help locate their loved ones, it should be examined and shared immediately.

“Families should not have to fight this hard for answers while the people they love are missing thousands of kilometres away,” the statement read.

They expressed gratitude to the AFP and search teams working to find missing Australians, but criticised the Australian government for what they said was its silence and failure to answer serious questions.

“We are deeply distressed by what we believe has been an inadequate and painfully slow response from the Australian government,” they said.

“When Australian citizens are missing overseas, their families should never be left feeling as though finding them is not a priority,” Mr Raval’s wife, Aarti, said in a separate statement.

The families’ statement ended on a hopeful message.

“We still have hope. Until we are given definitive evidence otherwise, we will keep believing they could be somewhere waiting to be found,” they said.

Bhavin Patel’s wife Reshma was part of the Isha Foundation group, and he has spent the past week in the country’s capital searching for her.

He hired a helicopter on Friday to travel to the final location where his wife was last known to have been, next to the Tibet border.

Mr Patel was denied entry into Tibet, family friend Chin Valsan told AAP.

From the helicopter, he could see some road and building works happening, but little else.

A 15-person Disaster Assistance Response team, including drone operators and incident management specialists from Fire and Rescue NSW, arrived in Kathmandu from Australia on Friday to join search efforts.

“Our condolences to all those families impacted by the floods here in Nepal,” a member of the Australian Crisis Response team said in a video posted to social media by Australian ambassador to Nepal Simon Ernst on Saturday.

He said search and rescue efforts were ongoing, and Australian partners were working to support the United Nations and Red Cross in delivering humanitarian assistance.

The Australian government on Friday confirmed two more Australians had been found safe, bringing the total number of Australians found since the floods to seven.