India has embarked on a “massive” operation calling up passenger jets and naval ships to bring back some of the hundreds of thousands of its nationals stuck abroad due to coronavirus restrictions, the government said yesterday.
India banned all incoming international flights in late March as it imposed one of the world’s strictest virus lockdowns, leaving vast numbers of workers and students stranded.
Two ships were steaming towards the Maldives’ capital Male to evacuate some 1,000 citizens from Friday, the navy said in a statement late yesterday.
A defence spokesman said a third vessel was heading to the United Arab Emirates.
A government statement said repatriation flights would start bringing nationals home from tomorrow, and that Indian embassies and high commissions were preparing lists of “distressed Indian citizens”.
But to the anger of some of those abroad, the evacuees will have to pay for their passage, the statement said, and spend 14 days in quarantine on arrival.
“Covid test would be done after 14 days and further action would be taken according to health protocols,” it added.
Those taking the special flights will be charged around Rs50,000 from Europe and Rs100,000 from the US.
According to the civil aviation ministry, around 14,800 people will be taken back on 64 flights from 12 countries in the first week, with the first leaving the UAE and Qatar tomorrow.
Other flights will leave Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, as well as London, San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Washington.
It is India’s biggest evacuation exercise since national carrier Air India flew back 170,000 nationals from Kuwait during the Gulf War in 1990.
Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri said the evacuations may well exceed 190,000. But officials said many more could be repatriated.
“This will be one of the biggest-ever peacetime repatriation exercises in history,” an official said.
The flights will be operated by Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express.
The flights will bring an average of 2,000 people back to various Indian destinations every day for a week, according to the foreign ministry.
So far some 20,000 Indians in the US have signed up for the evacuations, The Times of India reported.
But some Indians said they would not be able to pay for their homeward journeys and pleaded with the government for help.
“I request govt to take all of us at no charge during this crisis situation as we are all struggling here due to prolonged lockdown,” tourist Sadhana Srivastava tweeted from Dubai.
“I’m homeless now after I lost my job in March, please take me to India or else I will be in a big trouble here in Dubai, please help me sir,” Saroj K Swain wrote on Twitter.
The government had earlier evacuated some 2,500 Indians from China, Japan, Iran and Italy before banning international and domestic travel.