Massive Indian airlift planned

VIRUS: QUEST TO BRING STRANDED NATIONALS HOME

Consulate in Dubai says it has received almost 200 000 applications.

India has embarked on a “massive” operation, calling up passenger jets and naval ships, to bring back some of the hundreds of thousands of nationals stuck abroad due to coronavirus restrictions, the government said.

India banned all incoming international flights in late March as it imposed one of the world’s strictest virus lockdowns, leaving vast numbers of workers and students stranded.

A defence spokesperson said yesterday two ships were steaming towards the Maldives and another to the United Arab Emirates – home to a 3.3-million-strong Indian community, who make up around 30% of the Gulf state’s population.

A government statement said repatriation flights would start bringing nationals home from tomorrow and that Indian embassies and high commissions were preparing lists of “distressed Indian citizens”.

Evacuees will have to pay for their passage the statement said, without elaborating, and spend 14 days in quarantine on arrival.

“Covid-19 tests would be done after 14 days and further action would be taken according to health protocols,” it added.

The consulate in Dubai said that it alone had received almost 200 000 applications, appealing on Twitter for “patience and cooperation” as India undertakes the “massive task” of repatriation.

The oil-rich Gulf is reliant on the cheap labour of millions of foreigners – mostly from India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka – many of whom live in squalid camps far from the region’s showy skyscrapers and malls.

But coronavirus and the devastating economic impact of the pandemic has left many workers sick and others unemployed, unpaid and at the mercy of sometimes unscrupulous employers.

More than 60 flights are also being arranged to bring home those stranded in the Gulf, the US, Britain, Bangladesh, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, Punjab state’s special chief secretary KBS Sidhu tweeted yesterday.

The flights will bring an average of 2 000 people back to various Indian states and territories every day for a week, a foreign ministry document shared by Sidhu stated.

So far, about 20 000 Indians in the US have signed up for the evacuations, the Times of India reported.

But some Indians said they would not be able to pay for their evacuations and pleaded with the government for help to get home. –