Govt gives stranded foreigners exemption from lockdown

‘Decisions have been taken exercising powers conferred under the Disaster Mgmt Act’

NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday allowed transit arrangements for stranded foreign nationals and also evacuation of those foreigners, who arrived in India post-february 15 after their quarantine period and tested coronavirus negative, officials said.

It said only those foreign nationals would be allowed to leave, who are asymptomatic for COVID-19.

In an order, the Home Ministry said the decisions have been taken exercising the powers conferred under the Disaster Management Act.

According to the order, the home ministry allowed transit arrangements for foreign nationals, who are currently in India, and release of quarantined persons, who have arrived in India after February 15, after expiry of their quarantine period and tested COVID19 negative.

The home ministry said it has been brought to its notice that a number of foreign nationals are stranded in different parts of the country due to the lockdown measures.

Some foreign countries have approached the government for evacuation of their nationals.

In view of these, it has now been decided that requests received from foreign governments, for evacuation of their nationals from India, would be examined by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on case to case basis, the order said.

In cases where such requests are endorsed by MEA, the following protocol would be observed: the chartered flight would be arranged by the foreign government concerned in consultation with the Ministry of Civil Aviation, prior to departure, the foreign nationals would be screened for COVID-19 symptoms according to standard health protocol.

In case of symptomatic persons, the future course of treatment would be followed, as per the standard health protocol, the home ministry said.

It said local transportation arrangements from the place of stay of the foreign nationals to the point of embarkation would be arranged by the

local embassy/consulate of the respective foreign government.

The transit pass for movement of the vehicle deployed for the foreign nationals would be issued by the government of the state/ union territory where the foreign nationals are staying.

The transit pass, as issued above, would be honoured/ allowed by the authorities of the state/union territories along the transit route.

The ministry also issued a Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for the release of quarantined persons after expiry of quarantine period and tested COVID-19 negative.

With a view to preventing spread of COVID-19 and as a measure of abundant precaution, persons returning from foreign locations after February 15 had been quarantined in government/ government-arranged facilities.