Our Correspondent
Dubai
Phase Four of the “Vande Bharat Mission”, which will begin on July 3, will focus on the Middile East, where a large number of expatriates have registered with Indian embassies to get seats in the special repatriation flights operated by Air India and Air India Express.
Anurag Srivastava, Spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, told media that the Centre was committed to bringing back compatriots from the GCC countries, Malaysia, and Singapore in particular.
“This phase will particularly focus on countries where we still have a large number of Indians who have registered to return,” he said.
The Vande Bharat Mission, which is in its seventh week, has so far brought back 364,209 Indians from over 50 countries across 5 continents, he said. “Demand for these flights remains very high, especially in the Gulf region and, therefore, we are moving to further streamline the process,” Srivastava said.
However, a section of the Indian expat community in the UAE criticised the Indian government, which it said was shifting its responsibility of repatriation to community groups; more charter flights than VBM flights ferried people to India, Gulf News reported.
The Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi stated that 83,000 Indians have been repatriated through Air India and chartered flights of other airlines as of June 25. Of these, 54,000 were flown home on chartered flights (45,000 approved by the consulate and 9,000 approved by the embassy) and 29,000 on VBM flights.
On June 21, two community chartered flights had repatriated 395 Indians for free to Kerala. One flight was organised by Malayalam TV channel Kairali TV, and the other by the community group Overseas Malayali Association (Orma). While the former took 215 Malayalis home on an Air Arabia flight from Sharjah to Thiruvananthapuram, Orma flew home the rest from Dubai to Kannur.
