India starts evacuation for 15,000 stranded overseas |
India has started one of the largest evacuation exercises on Thursday. In this evacuation exercise named as Vande Bharat Mission, the Indian government will operate 64 flights between 7th and 13th of May to bring home nearly 14,800 Indian nationals stranded abroad due to the Coronavirus lockdown. Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar on Wednesday said that preparations for the operation have commenced and also urged the stranded individuals to stay in touch with the Indian embassies in their countries. The 64 flights which will be operated include 10 flights from UAE, 7 each from Bangladesh, Malaysia, United Kingdom and United States, 5 each from Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Philippines and Kuwait along with 2 each from Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. Out of the total, 15 flights will bring back people to Kerala followed by 11 flights to Tamil Nadu and Delhi. 7 flights will be flying back people to Maharashtra and Telangana whereas 5 flights are slated for Gujarat. Maximum number of flights in the first week of repatriation will bring back citizens from the Gulf countries. Meanwhile, Indian Navy has confirmed that 3 of its ships are on the mission to get back stranded citizens from Maldives and UAE. INS Jalashwa and INS Magar will get back Indians from the Maldives while INS Shardul has been diverted to Dubai to get back the expatriates.
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