Repatriations from neighboring countries were carried out by land borders (Representation)
New Delhi:
More than 3.6 Indian lakhs returned to India from abroad after the government launched the “Vande Bharat” evacuation mission on May 7 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said that a total of 5,13,047 Indians had registered their request for repatriation to India to Indian missions abroad on compelling grounds.
Among those registered, 3,644,209 have returned to the mission to date, he said.
Repatriations from neighboring countries have also taken place across land borders, he added.
“More than 84,000 Indians have returned through land border immigration checkpoints from Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh,” said the MEA spokesperson.
“During the first three phases of the Vande Bharat mission, approximately 875 international flights were to be operated from more than 50 countries on five continents. To date, more than 700 of these flights have reached India, repatriating about 150,000 Indians, “said Mr. Srivastava.
The remaining 175 flights in Phase 3 are expected to reach within the next few days, he said.
These Vande Bharat (VBM) flights have helped meet the immediate needs of stranded Indians from many parts of the world, said Srivastava.
“We are determined to bring back our remaining compatriots, in particular in the GCC countries, Malaysia, Singapore among others. In order to continue our efforts, phase IV of the VBM is firming up from July 3, 2020,” he said. he declares. .
“Phase IV will focus particularly on the countries where we still have a large number of Indians who have registered to return,” said Mr. Srivastava.
Other than that, charter operations that started on May 26 have steadily increased in the past few weeks, he said.
“These flights have also brought sailors and crews from shipping companies stranded in various locations,” said Srivastava.
“To date, 1,30,061 people have returned to these flights. Demand for these flights remains very high, particularly in the Gulf region. Therefore, we are working to further streamline the process,” said M Srivastava.
Noting that repatriations via warships were also part of the mission, he said that one of these repatriations was currently under way.
INS Jalashwa reached the port of Bandar Abbas in Iran on June 24 to bring back Indian citizens and their embarkation was to begin on Thursday, said Srivastava.
