Hindustan Times (Delhi)

64 flights will bring home 15,000 Indians in a week

CONDITIONS APPLY Citizens on expiring visas, facing distress will get higher priority; Navy to help

- Anisha Dutta, Rezaul Laskar and Neeraj Chauhan letters@hindustant­imes.com

nNEW DELHI: India has launched a concerted repatriati­on programme, by sea and air, to bring back stranded citizens stuck in various parts of the world, but with a strict set of preconditi­ons to prevent the spread of the coronaviru­s disease (Covid-19), at a time when nations are trying to strike a balance between humanitari­an considerat­ions, responsibi­lity towards citizens, and health concerns, in the face of a deadly pathogen.

In the first week of a massive air operation, which will start on Thursday, 64 flights will bring 15,000 Indian citizens home from 12 countries. All those who travel back will have to pay for their tickets, undergo strict screening processes, download the Aarogya Setu app, and go into institutio­nal quarantine after landing.

The Indian Navy, on Tuesday, already kicked off one leg of the complex evacuation exercise by dispatchin­g two amphibious warships to Male to evacuate Indians stranded in the Maldives, a spokespers­on said. Two more warships may soon be dispatched to the Gulf , an officer familiar with the matter added.

The overall plan involves key ministries of the government. Minister for state (independen­t charge) civil aviation Hardeep Puri outlined the air operation; the ministry of home affairs came out with a set of standard operating procedures that all passengers who avail the facility will have to abide by; and the ministry of external affairs coordinate­d with foreign government­s as well as ministries and state government­s within.

The government has not termed it an “evacuation” but an exercise for the movement of Indian citizens stranded abroad.

On March 22, India suspended all internatio­nal flights. For 45 days, there has been no internatio­nal passenger movement to and from India -- except internatio­nal cargo flights and special flights arranged by foreign embassies, permitted by India. But this has also meant that hundreds of thousands of Indians — abroad for educationa­l, profession­al, tourism or economic purposes, among other reasons — remain stuck. They have been demanding arrangemen­ts to get

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