Stranded Indians brought back from UAE by the first of the special flights

Repatriation Mission of Indian government starts

Friday, 8th May 2020

The government’s repatriation operations to bring back stranded Indians from abroad has already been initiated this week. On this Thursday the largest of operations started in the country to bring the first expatriates batch from UAE in the midst of the Coronavirus crisis. The first of Express flights of Air India brought back 177 stranded Indians along with 4 infants from UAE’s Abu Dhabi. The flight landed at Kochi in Kerala at about 10. 09 pm.

Another flight carrying stranded Indians from Dubai landed in Kerala’s Kozhikode a couple of minutes later at about 10. 32 pm. This second flight too carried 177 stranded Indians while the number of infants in the flight was 5.

This home coming however was different for the Indians. No relatives were there at the airport arrival gates to wave at and greet the Indians back home but there were health staffs and officials all draped from head to foot in special PPE gear to receive them. These staffs and officials were waiting at the well sanitized airport terminal. The passengers were then sent to quarantine centres instead of their homes.

Our country had previously declared that it is going to execute Phase 1 of its ‘Vande Bharat Mission’ evacuation plan and as per the plan 64 flights and also 3 ships of Navy would be assigned with the task of bringing 15, 000 stranded Indians back home from abroad.

Source: Indian Express