Move to halve paid quarantine period hailed
SOCIAL WORKERS SAY WORKERS WHO LOST JOB SHOULD BE GIVEN FREE STAY
India reducing its mandatory paid-quarantine period for returning overseas citizens from 14 days to seven has been welcomed by stranded nationals in the UAE seeking repatriation due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on Sunday made it mandatory for stranded Indians arriving from abroad to undergo seven days of paid institutional quarantine at their own cost, followed by seven days of self-quarantine at home, as opposed to an earlier 14-day quarantine period entirely spent in government arranged facilities.
Only in exceptional circumstances, such as distress, pregnancy, a death in the family, serious illness or a parent accompanied by children under the age of 10 — as assessed by receiving states — can someone spend the entire 14-day quarantine at home, said the ministry.
The reduction in the number of days returning expats need to stay in government-arranged facilities from 14 to seven has come as a breather for returning epxats who did not fall into exceptional categories as they no longer have to pay for the full 14 days.
The fact that those who have already lost their jobs now won’t have to pay for a full 14 days was seen as a relief for blue collar workers.
Additional burden
Yet many will still need the seven days covered as they are returning in dire financial circumstances, said social workers supporting cases and applicants who have registered to fly home.
Abhijithson, who lost his job as a video editor and applied to fly home after his wife developed a health issue, said the payment for quarantine is an additional burden for people like him.
“I am going back a pauper,” the Sharjah resident told Gulf
News yesterday.
He said the couple depended on free meals distributed by the volunteers for over a month and got a free ticket sponsored by the Madhyamam group.
“I still have a loan to settle back home. I will have to depend on relatives and friends for my wife’s treatment. I may be able to manage the paid-quarantine facility with the help of them. But I hope the government will make arrangements for free quarantine for people like us and also blue-collar workers who are in an even worse situation.”
K.V. Shamsudheen, an Indian social worker who has been educating community members about financial discipline and supporting several stranded Indians, welcomed the central government’s decision to reduce the paid quarantine period.
Non-emergency cases
“This is definitely a relief for many people in distress who are returning home. But, I would request the government to consider making it free of cost for deserving people like workers who lost jobs and stranded visitors.”
He said there could be several people who can afford to live in hotels and resorts as their reason for returning home may not be due to their poor financial status but other personal emergencies.
“Such people can be charged. But, we know there are several workers who are flying home after losing jobs and many visitors have been stranded without any money. They need to be supported with free quarantine facilities,” he said.
Neeraj Agrawal, consul for Press, Information and Culture, said the consulate is well aware of, and sympathetic to workers who would find it difficult to afford the quarantine payment.
“There is definitely a mechanism in place and that is why an undertaking is taken from applicants prior to departure that they are agreeing to undergo paid mandatory quarantine at the landing destination.”
“But, state governments and relief agencies are taking care of such people. We have not received any complaints from those who returned from here.”