Government To Evacuate Over 14,000 Stranded Indians From Overseas

After pressure exerted by state governments and appeals by lakhs of Indian workers, the Central government has outlined plans for the return home of its citizens stranded in Gulf countries.

Following a green light from the Central government, 10 Air India flights are being readied. Of these, two flights will leave from Kochi for Abu Dhabi and Qatar. Two flights will be head from Kozhikode to Dubai and Riyadh, two flights from Mumbai to London and Singapore, one flight from Delhi to Kuala Lumpur, one from Hyderabad to San Francisco, one from Ahmedabad to Manila and one from Srinagar to Dhaka. All these ten flights will repatriate 2300 Indians from overseas. 

Kerala’s CM Pinarayi Vijayan had recently written a letter to the Central government, asking for the repatriation of people stuck in the UAE.

The UAE-based Indian Embassy is preparing the list of names of those stranded Indian citizens who will be airlifted back to India and Air India flights will repatriate only these people. 

According to government data, the largest number of Indians abroad at 34.20 lakh are residing in the UAE and due to the coronavirus pandemic, they had been appealing for repatriation on social media for a long time.

Meanwhile, according to media reports, in the first phase, around 15,000 Indian citizens in 64 aircraft will be airlifted to India.

However, apart from the Gulf countries, included among them are citizens stranded in other countries, including Britain and the United States.

To reach home on these flights, people will have to contact the Indian Embassy and they will also have to pay for this journey.

Apart from this, people will also be brought back from the Maldives and the UAE on Naval ships.

Before boarding these flights, everyone will go through medical screening and only those without any coronavirus symptoms will be brought to India. 

On returning to India, all these people will have to go into 14-day quarantine at a hospital or isolate themselves elsewhere.

After 14 days, they will be tested for the coronavirus and except those whose reports are positive, everyone else will be sent home.

According to Lok Sabha data, 1.36 crore Indians are living abroad for employment and to earn their livelihood.

Among them, 83.72 lakh Indians are residing in the seven Islamic countries of UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Malaysia alone.