Indians evacuated from Malaysia on Air Asia flight

NEW DELHI: A total of 104 Indians stranded at the airport at Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia were brought back aboard a special Air Asia flight on Monday night. The flight also took back some Malaysian nationals, people familiar with developments said.

Though close to 300 Indian nationals are currently believed to be at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, only those who had already cleared immigration will be brought back in the special flight, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity.

The others who are at the airport but hadn’t cleared immigration are being convinced to go to hostels, hotels and other facilities by officials from the Indian high commission, the people said.

“The Air Asia flight coming to India with 104 Indians will also take back some Malaysian citizens stranded in New Delhi,” a person said.

On March 17, the Indian government had approved two special Air Asia flights to New Delhi and Visakhapatnam to evacuate a total of 405 Indians.

The people said another flight is expected to bring back more Indians from Iran this week. Only those Indians who had been screened and tested negative for the coronavirus will be allowed on to this flight, they said.

The people cited above said several countries, including France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Israel, had sought special arrangements for flights to evacuate their nationals from India. Malaysia’s foreign ministry said on March 19 that 1,075 Malaysian citizens were stranded in India.