In the biggest exercise of its kind globally, India will begin bringing back millions of its citizens stranded abroad from Thursday (May 7) in a phased manner on non-schedule flights and naval ships. Among the first targets is UAE, where about 200,000 people have registered with the local missions to return from Dubai and Abu Dhabi alone, and who could be brought back in the first phase. Official sources said in the “short-term’’ the government hopes to facilitate the return of 1,92,000 Indians and another 200,000 to 250,000 in the medium term.
After the initial focus on Gulf, the government will look to bring back people from the US, UK, Iran and southeast Asia. In what comes as a surprise, around 20,000 Indians have registered in the US for repatriation. India had to first focus on the Gulf because the governments there, like in the UAE, were threatening to impose restrictions on countries reluctant to take back their citizens after the coronavirus outbreak.
The government said it will allow the return of distressed Indians on “compelling grounds” and that only those asymptomatic will be allowed to travel. They will have to pay for their travel and 14-day quarantine on return - either in hospitals or institutional quarantine - apart from registering on the Arogya Setu app.
The exercise will start on Tuesday with the government sending a naval ship to Maldives to bring back Indians. Around 700 stranded citizens are expected to be evacuated on May 8 from Male and brought to Kochi. The Indian high commission in Male is reaching out to Indians who wish to return on “compelling grounds’ (medical and other emergencies, pregnant women, stranded tourists, jobless migrant workers from Kerala).
India had stopped scheduled international flights on March 22 and asked Indians abroad to stay put till arrangements were made to bring them back. “Medical screening of passengers would be done before taking the flight. During the journey, all these passengers would have to follow protocols, such as health protocols, issued by the ministries of health and aviation,’’ said the government in a statement. Given the scale of operations, both private airlines and Air India are likely to be deployed for the exercise. In terms of scale, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait had seen 170,000 Indians being flown back from August 13-October 11, 1990, on Air India flights.
The Indian missions abroad had created a link for registration of those looking to return but had said this wasn’t going to guarantee a seat in the aircraft. Scores of Indians, including students, have registered from north America, UK, Europe, southeast Asia and Australia.
Warships, planes ready
The armed forces are keeping some of their large warships and transport aircraft on stand-by to ensure they can swing into action if the government directs mass evacuation of Indians. “There are no explicit orders as yet but the warships and aircraft are being kept ready if the government decides to deploy them for evacuation. Similar is the case for Air India planes,” said an officer. If the numbers to be evacuated are large, then deploying large amphibious warships or “landing platform docks” like INS Jalashwa, instead of only IAF and Air India aircraft, would make better logistical sense.
The 16,900-tonne INS Jalashwa, the country’s second-largest warship after aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, for instance, can transport 800-1,000 people. For evacuating smaller numbers, IAF can deploy its C-17 Globemaster-III and IL-76 aircraft. IAF has earlier deployed C-17 aircraft to Wuhan in China and Teheran in Iran to evacuate over 180 people. “INS Jalashwa and two smaller LPDs can together evacuate around 1,500 people. Or, it can be a combination of LPDs as well as military and civil aircraft. The government will have to take the call after finalising the number of people to be evacuated,” said the officer.
