India begins world's largest repatriation to bring citizens home

Credit: AP

After 40 days of complete lockdown, India has finally decided to start repatriation of its stranded citizen across the world.

Named as "Vande Bharat Mission" - India will deploy commercial jets, military transport planes and naval warships to bring back millions of citizens stranded across the world.

India's foreign minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar made the announcement in a tweet saying it would start the process of bringing back stranded Indian nationals to return home from 7 May.

The exercise to bring back stranded Indians would be in "phased manner".

This exercise is set to be the biggest-ever peacetime repatriation exercise in world history. The first phase of the drive is estimated to help about 1.8 million Indian citizens return home, according to India's foreign ministry.

One Delhi resident, Shammi Kapoor, said: "My son is studying in the UK and is now stranded as his hostel is closed and we are eagerly waiting for him to come home.

"This decision would help thousands of Indians stranded around the world."

The Indian government has been under lot of pressure from families of stranded citizens abroad - with calls for the government to help them return home.

India is running train service for thousands of migrant workers desperate to return home since it imposed a nationwide lockdown. Credit: AP

The plan to evacuate citizens follows India's move to partially ease movement restrictions in many parts of the world's second-most populous nation after 40 days of strict stay-at-home orders.

Millions of Indians were stuck around the world - from the Gulf, to Europe, and the US - after Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed the lockdown on 25 March to check the spread of the virus.

People wanting to come back must pay for their journey, the Indian government said in a statement on Monday.

All passengers will be screened, only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed on board, and they will be quarantined for 14 days before having to have a virus test, the government said.

India's lockdown has been extended as the number of coronavirus cases rises. Credit: AP

Prior to boarding the evacuation flights, everyone coming to India would be required to fill in a form and submit a copy to the Health and Immigration Counter at arrival.

The passengers are required to state whether they are suffering from fever, cough, diabetes or any respiratory disease.

This form is similar to the one filled by passengers arriving back into the country during the early days of the Covid-19 outbreak.

This airlift by the MEA will be the largest since the Gulf War evacuation of more than 170,000 people from Kuwait in 1990.

Similar evacuations were also seen in April 2015, when Operation ‘Raahat’ was launched to evacuate Indians from war-torn Yemen.

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