Techies from state in Saudi Arabia want to be repatriated

Mangaluru: Samar and Priya (names changed), who are techies from Bengaluru, had flown to Saudi Arabia on a short business trip, in the second week of March, and wanted to return by April, but got stranded due to the pandemic.
Samar, who has a three-year-old daughter, found it tough to cope with the situation, and had two panic attacks, and is currently undergoing psychological counselling online, from a physician in Bengaluru. Like him, many techies from Bengaluru who landed in Saudi Arabia on short business trips have got stranded due to the non-availability of flights. According to former deputy chairperson, NRI Forum of Karnataka, Dr Arathi Krishna, as many as 4,800 Kannadigas have registered to be repatriated, but there are not many Vande Bharat Mission flights scheduled from Saudi Arabia to Karnataka. She blames the state government for not taking up the issue strongly with the Union government. “We will get more flights from Gulf countries, if political representatives put pressure on the ministry of external affairs (MEA) and ministry of civil aviation (MoCA),” she said.
“However, my only wish is to return safely and be reunited with my family. My company has tried everything possible. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had started flights to send us back, but the government of India denied permission. Saudi Arabia has sent many people back to their home countries, but India failed to receive us back,” said Samar.
Samar said that life stuck inside a hotel room was turning nightmarish for him. “Recently, our hotel booked guests in 10 more rooms, and we are hence fearful to step outside our room. I am cleaning my room on a daily basis. There is no demarcation of containment zones here. We don’t have any friends to help us out. The Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia are not responding to us at all,” he said.
Another techie, Ram, (named changed) says he doesn’t have any issue when it comes to accommodation and food, but the experience is affecting him psychologically. “I came here in January for a two-month trip, but have been stuck here for more than five months now. I left my family back in India.”
Another Kannadiga said that the Saudi Arabia government is willing to send chartered flights to India, and that even big companies are ready to offer charter flights for Indians stranded in the kingdom, but the Indian government has denied permission for the same. “Novel coronavirus cases are rising in Saudi Arabia, and the rate of infection is alarming, but still our government and the government of Karnataka, in particular, does not understand the seriousness of our request. It is a very tough situation to face mentally, and many of us are surviving on bare minimum food,” said a distressed Indian who was stranded in Saudi Arabia.
Union fertiliser minister D V Sadananda Gowda, who is overseeing repatriation of Kannadigas, was not available for comment.
Twitter campaign
Twitterati on Monday tried to get the attention of the Karnataka and central governments on repatriating Kannadigas stranded in Gulf countries, through the Twitter campaign #BringBackGulfKannadigas and #BringBackSaudiKannadigas, by tagging chief minister B S Yediyurappa, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others. This campaign comes after the allotment of only a few flights to Karnataka from Gulf countries. Close to 6,000 tweets were made in favour of the campaign, within a few hours of the campaign.
Mohammed kaizer @KaizerMohammed tweeted, “One of the major source of foreign currency inflow in the country is money transfer/remittance made by NRI’s. The same NRI’s are stranded here with no sigh of repatriation.” #BringBackSaudiKannadigas #BringBackGulfKannadigas
Mohammed Afreed @appu_s21 tweeted, “Kannadigas who had travelled KSA for employment,business, pilgrimage etc are stranded, after two months of unspeakable hardships they are desirous of returning to their land safely. The government needs to act.”#BringBackSaudiKannadigas#BringBackSaudiKannadigas @CMofKarnataka