Govt blames Qatar Airways for maid’s death
Stranded at airport
Five weeks after a woman from Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh died while being stranded at the Muscat Airport, the Government blamed Qatar Airways and police as well as the immigration officials of Oman.
An inquiry by the Ministry of External Affairs gave a clean chit to the officials of the Indian Embassy in the capital of Oman.
The government accused Qatar Airways of not following the “existing procedure” after Beebi Lumada’s passport was missing on her arrival at Doha en route from Muscat to Chennai on October 3 last.
The airlines sent Lumada back to Muscat, although she had no valid visa for Oman. The 40-year-old worked as a maid in Oman, but her employer decided to send her back to India and cancelled her visa. The airlines, according to the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, also did not go by “standard operating procedures” while seeking emergency certificate for her from the Indian Embassy in Muscat.
The government alleged that Qatar Airways had even declined to fly her body to Chennai free of cost, after she had died while being stranded at the Muscat Airport under the surveillance of the immigration officials. The Indian Embassy had made arrangements for dispatching her mortal remains to India.
Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi informed the Rajya Sabha that the government had taken up the issue with the airlines in Doha and Muscat as well as the immigration officials at both the airports “to avoid recurrence of such incidents”.
Lumada was very depressed when she was kept in “a separate cordoned off area” in the airport for four days. She suffered seizures on October 8 and was declared dead on being taken to Ibn Sina Hospital in Muscat.
The Indian Embassy in Muscat had come under fire with Qatar Airways and Muscat Airport immigration officials reportedly blaming it for delay in issuing the emergency certificate to her. External Affairs Minister S M Krishna had ordered an inquiry.
In a written reply to a question by CPI MP from Andhra Pradesh Syed Azeez Pasha, Ravi stated that the airlines had “used her Doha-Chennai voucher to send her back to Muscat from Doha” instead of going by the existing procedure of seeking an emergency certificate from Indian mission in the capital of Qatar itself.
The airlines had later contacted the Indian Embassy in Muscat, but neither the airlines nor airport police sent to the embassy a missing passport report, which was required to issue an emergency certificate to Lumada making it possible for her to go back home. “Qatar Airways and Airport Police were both asked to send the passport details and name of the Indian national in writing and the missing passport report from the airport immigration ,” he added.
