A passage back home for stranded Indians

Kochi/Mumbai/New Delhi: The first naval ship carrying nearly 700 Indian evacuees from Maldives arrived at Cochin Port on Sunday as another vessel reached Male, while about two dozen flights were operated by Air India on the fourth day of Vande Bharat Mission to bring back citizens stranded abroad due to the coronavirus lockdown.

 A Port Trust statement said that 698 people evacuated from the Maldives arrived at 9:30 am by ‘INS Jalashwa’ of the Indian Navy. Among the passengers were 14 children below 10 years of age and 19 pregnant women.

Concurrently, INS Magar on Sunday reached Male, under the exercise christened Operation Samudra Setu, to bring nearly 200 more stranded Indian nationals from the Maldives, the Indian Navy said.

Passengers showing COVID-19 symptoms were disembarked first from INS Jalashwa, followed by others in small groups, district-wise, a Port Trust official said, adding the baggage was also disinfected.

As many as 572 Indians reached Mumbai in two Air India flights from London and Singapore on Sunday morning.

A total of 329 people who were stranded in the UK arrived in the first flight from the country.

The first Air India flight to evacuate Indians from the US took off from San Francisco on Saturday to Mumbai and Hyderabad and will reach on Monday morning.

From May 9, Air India has scheduled seven non-scheduled commercial flights from the US to India facilitating the return of Indian nationals, who could not travel due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Another flight from Newark will fly on May 14 to Delhi and Hyderabad. All passengers will be required to undergo medical screening before boarding the flight and only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed to travel.

All passengers on arrival in India will be medically screened and would have to download and register the Aarogya Setu app.

Apart from the two flights from New Jersey, two flights have been scheduled from Chicago on May 11 (to Mumbai and Chennai) and May 15 (Delhi and Hyderabad).

The solo flight from Washington DC on May 12 will fly to Delhi and Hyderabad.

The first phase of the Mission to evacuate stranded Indian started on May 7 and will conclude on May 15. A total of 64 flights carrying approximately 15,000 returnees from 12 countries, including Gulf nations, Malaysia, the UK and the US,  are expected to land at 14 airports across India during the period.

The Air India flights are simultaneously ferrying stranded foreigners to their countries.

In the second phase of the evacuation, Indians stranded in other countries in central Asia and Europe like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Germany, Spain and Thailand will be brought back from May 15.

According to the government’s policy for evacuation, Indians with “compelling reasons” to return such as pregnant women, elderly people, students and those facing the prospect of deportation are being brought back home.

The 67,833 people who have registered by Friday and mapped flights, included 22,470 students, 15,815 migrant workers, 9,250 people facing expiry of visas and 5,531 who are seeking evacuation on the ground of medical emergency, the sources said.

The people registered for evacuation also included 4,147 stranded tourists, 3,041 pregnant women and the elderly and 1,112 Indians who want to return due to death of family members.