108 pregnant women flown home in one day by India’s special flights
abu dhabi – A total of 108 pregnant women and 148 people with medical emergencies were among the passengers on board India’s three repatriation flights from the UAE on Saturday. These operations marked the start of the Vande Bharat Mission’s second phase.
While the Indian mission in Dubai focused on flying pregnant women home, the embassy in Abu Dhabi prioritised medical emergency cases and those who lost their employment as all three flights left for Kerala.
There were 75 pregnant women flown out from Dubai to Kochi; 18 from Abu Dhabi to Thiruvananthapuram; and 15 from the Capital to Kozhikode.
Indian Ambassador to the UAE Pavan Kapoor said the repatriation will continue “as long as it’s required”. “We had three flights today (Saturday) and 18 flights in this coming week. We hope this will assist many more Indians to go back urgently to India.”
There were 177 passengers and five infants on board the flight to
Thiruvananthapuram while 175 passengers and five infants flew to Kozhikode.
Neeraj Agarwal, Press consul at the Consulate-General of India to Dubai, told Khaleej Times that the 75 pregnant women who took off from the emirate were all past the 32nd week of their pregnancies.
“Two doctors and two nurses were on the flight to assist the women in case of emergencies.”
Agarwal called the flight “truly extraordinary” as it sent home people facing several issues, including some who are critically ill.
“There was a patient in the last stages of cancer; one patient with a brain tumour; and two passengers who are set to undergo a kidney transplant, one is the donor and the other is the receiver,” said Agarwal.