AI flight with 177 Indians leaves from UAE

May 07, 2020 19:03

The first of the two flights from the United Arab Emirates carrying 177 Indian nationals left for Kerala on Thursday, as India began its biggest ever repatriation exercise to bring back its citizens stranded abroad amidst the international travel lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic.

A total of 354 Indian nationals, including 11 pregnant women and a pair of twins, will return home on Thursday in the two flights from the UAE to Kerala as part of the repatriation exercise named 'Vande Bharat Mission.'

The Air India Express flight IX452 took off from Abu Dhabi to Kochi, which will be followed by a Dubai-Kozhikode flight of the same airline.

Passengers started arriving at Abu Dhabi and Dubai airports as early as 9.30am on Thursday. Some of the passengers were carrying the Indian flags.

Indian Ambassador Pavan Kapoor was seen enquiring about the procedure from some of the passengers undergoing medical screening at the Abu Dhabi airport.

"Kudos to all the passengers for waiting patiently for their turn for medical screening and many thanks to all the frontline health workers and airport staff for extending full support," the Indian embassy in Abu Dhabi tweeted.

There are no suspected COVID-19 cases among the first batch of passengers being repatriated on Thursday.

"All of them have cleared the tests," Consul General of India in Dubai Vipul was quoted as saying by the Gulf News.

He said the criteria of passengers' selection included medical cases, loss of jobs, pregnant women and senior citizens. Those with complications and financial issues were also picked.

On Monday, the Indian government announced plans to begin a phased repatriation of its citizens stranded abroad from May 7.

The government also said that Air India will operate 64 flights from May 7 to May 13 to bring back around 15,000 Indian nationals stranded abroad amid the COVID-19-induced lockdown. -- PTI

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