Coronavirus Lockdown: Pregnant women, senior citizens, ailing, jobless fly back from UAE to Kerala

M S Sanila had a mask covering her face, yet the glint in her eyes was unmissable as the pregnant lady was waiting for her turn at the Dubai International Airport to board the Air India Express aircraft and return to Kozhikode on Thursday.

She is in the advanced stage of her pregnancy and has been stranded in Dubai. She would not have been allowed to fly home if just one more week had passed. “Thank you so much,” Sanila says in a video clip the Consulate General of India (CGI) in Dubai posted on Twitter — just before the Air India Express aircraft with her and 176 others took off for Kozhikode.

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Another aircraft of the national carrier with almost an equal number of returnees onboard also departed from Abu Dhabi for Kochi around the same time.

The departure of the flights from the two cities in the UAE on Thursday marked the commencement of the “Vande Bharat Mission”, which the Centre embarked upon to facilitate the repatriation of the citizens stranded abroad due to travel and transport curbs enforced around the world in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The first week of the “Vande Bharat Mission” will see nearly 14800 Indians being repatriated from 12 countries, including United States, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Singapore, onboard 64 special flights operated by Air India and Air India Express till May 13.

As many as 10 flights are planned to bring back home nearly 2000 Indians stranded in the UAE alone during the first week and they will arrive not only to Kochi and Kozhikode, but also to Chennai, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Delhi and Amritsar.

Nearly 200,000 Indians living in the UAE registered with the CGI Dubai and the Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi expressing keenness to return to India.

The launch of the repatriation mission came just in the nick of time for Sanila. But many others like her will have to wait for their turn. “Please help me. Even I am 7 months pregnant and I have 2 (two) weeks left. I can’t travel after May 20. Please. I want to go back to Mumbai. Please,” tweeted Krishna, one of nearly 6500 pregnant women currently stranded in the UAE and keen to return to India. The government is prioritizing the ones who need to return urgently for compelling reasons, like deportation from the foreign countries, job loss, expiry of short-term visas, old age, medical emergency, pregnancy and death in the family.

A number of blue-collar workers, who lost jobs in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, were among the returnees on Thursday, although shelling out Rs 14000 for the airfare was difficult for many of them.

Yet, the ones, who are yet to get calls from Air India to book tickets, poured out their desperation on Twitter. “Please help me, evacuate me to Srinagar, India. My family is suffering there without me. Please help me, evacuate me. I am in depression, facing anxiety. Please help me, evacuate me please,” Muzaffar Ahmed Bhat exhorted in a tweet to India’s envoy to UAE, Pawan Kapoor, who, himself, was present at the Abu Dhabi airport to see off the first batch of returnees.

“What about us? We have also lost our jobs and want to go back to India from Dubai. (We) also register on the link provided (by the CGI Dubai), but still no response,” Lokesh Singh Bais posted on Twitter. “I have also lost the job since more than a month now, I am texting you here and through email, nobody is listening,” Ubaid Reyaj posted, replying to a tweet by CGI Dubai.

The UAE health authorities conducted rapid antibody tests on all returnees at the airports and only the ones found Covid-19 negative were allowed to board the aircraft. All of them will be quarantined for at least 14 days immediately after arrival at Kozhikode and Kochi airports. Apart from airfare, they all will have to pay for accommodation at the quarantine facilities too.

Ajith was the last to board the flight from Dubai to Kozhikode on Thursday, as a seat was vacated at the last moment. He couldn’t be with his mother when she breathed his last recently, but can at least now hope to return home after a fortnight at the quarantine facility and finally perform her last rites.