3,000 expatriates likely to land at Mangaluru port or airport soon

Kevin Mendonsa | TNN | Updated: May 2, 2020, 10:42 IST

Karnataka Cultural Foundation members distribute food kits in Saudi Arabia

MANGALURU: In all, 3,000 Indian expatriates seeking to return home from the world over will be landing either at the Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) or the Mangaluru Port soon, confirmed Dakshina Kannada deputy commissioner Sindhu B Rupesh. She said that most of the expatriates returning to India were from countries in the Gulf.
In addition to arriving in India at the MIA and the Mangaluru Port, many expatriates are also expected to sail into Indian shores at the Karwar Port in Uttara Kannada district. All the returning expatriates will be quarantined for a fortnight.
Sindhu said that a preliminary meeting on helping stranded Indians back home had been convened two days ago during the course of which various methods to achieve the objective had been deliberated upon. “The MIA and Mangaluru Port are crucial to this mission, and the personnel there have a key role to play in securing the safety of passengers once they arrive. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) will be enforced once the expatriates arrive in the district. All the passengers will be subjected to a preliminary health screening after which they will be sent to their respective districts, where they will be kept in quarantine for a fortnight,” Sindhu told TOI.
Sources in the government estimate that about 10,000 Karnataka residents are stranded in various countries across the globe, and have expressed their wish to return home. “Of these, we think around 3,000 will arrive in Mangaluru. Around 2,000 of these people, we think, are residents of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts,” the Dakshina Kannada DC said.
Sindhu pointed out that nearly 2,500 Indian citizens, among whom 900 were from Karnataka, had registered themselves, seeking to return home. In addition to the energy-rich countries, several expatriates from other foreign nations too are travelling to Mangaluru, she said.
Although officials at MIA said that they were yet to receive any official intimation on the impending arrival of the expatriates, they were confident of keeping the airport ready for the possibility.