India will begin repatriating thousands of Indians stranded abroad from Thursday (May 7), the government announced on Monday (May 4), the GDN reported today.
The operations are expected to begin from the Gulf countries where 70 per cent of the non-resident Indians live.
The first phase of the evacuation will cover nearly 1,900,000 people.
The exercise will reportedly start from the UAE, home to 3.4 million Indians, followed by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
However, a statement said the facility would be available on a payment basis.
“The government will be facilitating the return of Indian nationals stranded abroad on compelling grounds in a phased manner,” said the statement by the Indian government’s Press Information Bureau.
“The travel would be arranged by aircraft and naval ships.
“Medical screening would be done before taking the flight.”
It said only asymptomatic passengers would be allowed to travel and during the journey, the passengers would have to follow the protocols stipulated by the ministries of Health and Civil Aviation.
“On reaching the destination, everyone would have to register on the Arogya Setu app.
“Everyone would be medically screened. After scrutiny, they would be quarantined for 14 days, either in a hospital or in an institutional quarantine on a payment basis, by the concerned state government.”
Covid-19 tests would be conducted after 14 days and further action would be taken according to health protocols.
The statement added that Indian embassies and high commissions had started preparing a list of distressed citizens.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had reportedly told foreign ministry officials last month that priority would be given to blue-collar workers, especially those facing health problems, those who had a bereavement in the family or are eligible on any other humanitarian grounds.
Meanwhile, Indian Ambassador to the UAE Pavan Kapoor said Indian missions in the UAE will co-ordinate one of the biggest evacuation operations of citizens, and will cull out the first list of distressed citizens to fly home on May 7, Khaleej Times reported.
"We will make a flight manifesto and will decide who will go on which flight. The list will be made from those who are already registered on our website," said the envoy.
Kapoor said the list of passengers will be given to Air India, which will issue tickets. He said payment can be made either through the Air India website or at their city offices.
"We have not done anything like this before. So, as the starting process, I don't think we will have more than two flights on May 7."
The ambassador said they will see how it goes and make sure the systems are working fine before starting a full scale operation.
The first two flights are expected to fly to Kerala as the Indian government had earlier said that expats from Kerala would be the first ones to be brought since the state is well prepared to accommodate about 200,000 people at quarantine centres and hospitals.
The Consul General of India to Dubai, Vipul, said a total of 197,000 Indians in the UAE have registered on the online portal collecting data of citizens wishing to travel home amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The first flight will take off on May 7 from the UAE. We are working towards prioritising the passengers on a need basis. However, it is a complex decision-making process," said Vipul.
