Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has urged the Centre to withdraw the advisory that has insisted on a COVID-19 negative certificate as pre-condition for entry into India. He said such a containment measure was hurting Indians stranded in high-risk countries, and also Keralites wanting to rejoin work in Gulf countries.
"Even Indians who are stranded in Italy are asked to produce a negative certificate if they want to return to their homeland," the Chief Minister said in the Assembly on Wednesday. As many as 45 Indians, many of them Malayalis, are now stranded in the Rome Airport after Emirates refused to fly them saying the flight will not be allowed to land in India without the certificates.
"How can we ever do such a thing to our own countrymen. Even if they have COVID-19 symptoms, can we allow our people to languish in a foreign country? This is primitive," the Chief Minister said.
The advisory was issued by the Director General of Civil Aviation, and came into effect from March 10 midnight.
"In addition to visa restrictions already in place, passengers travelling from/having visited Italy or Republic of Korea and desirous of entering India will need certificate of having tested negative for COVID-19 from the designated laboratories authorized by the health authorities of these countries," the advisory said.
On Tuesday, 42 Keralites, who were arrived in Kochi from Italy, were quarantined at government hospitals in Ernakulam as they failed to submit the medical certificate.
Pinarayi said the advisory came to the government's notice when it was attempting to resolve the issues faced by non-resident Keralites who were on vacation in the state and were finding it difficult to get back to work in Gulf countries. Countries like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have clamped restrictions on the return of Malayalis. "Problem is if they fail to get back on time they might lose their jobs," the Chief Minister said. "I had already written to the Prime Minister and the External Affairs minister to quickly sort out the issue," Pinarayi said.
But he said it would be difficult to argue the case of non-resident Keralites if India, too, had imposed such restrictions on travellers from other countries. "Still, we will keep on talking to the Centre," he said.
Pinarayi said he would now write to the Health minister also. "I hear that it was at the insistence of the Union Health ministry that such a restriction has been imposed. Normally, writing to the Prime Minister would be enough. But given the situation, I will now write to the health minister also," the Chief Minister said.
In fact, the DGCA advisory has put Malayalis stranded in Rome in deep trouble. The Italian authorities, stressed as they already are to stem the wildfire spread of COVID-19, have made it clear they would not test anyone without any symptoms. All the stranded Malayali tourists do not have any symptoms.
The Chief Minister said that the Union Cabinet Secretary had told chief secretary Tom Jose that a health team from India would travel to Rome within two days and do the necessary tests and issue the certificates.
