A total of 543 passengers arrived in Kerala's three airports on Saturday from the United Arab Emirates on the first day of the second phase of the Vande Bharat evacuation mission.
Air India flight IX434 from Dubai reached the Cochin International Airport at 6:25pm on Saturday as part of the repatriation drive.
The flight had 181 passengers, including 75 pregnant women. This is the first evacuation of people of Kerala stranded in foreign soil in the second phase of Vande Bharat Mission, an airport spokesman said.
Two more special flights from Abu Dhabi have arrived at the Trivandrum International Airport and the Calicut International Airport late on Saturday. The Thiruvananthapuram-bound flight had 177 passengers and 5 infants on board while the Kozhikode flight brought back 175 passengers and 5 infants.
The flight to Thiruvanthapuram had 63 persons with medical emergencies, 63 pregnant women, 87 persons who lost their jobs and 9 stranded tourists.
4 flights to Kerala on Sunday, May 17
The Air India had on Saturday announced the completion of Phase I of the Vande Bharat evacuation mission.
“Air India and Air India Express complete Phase I of Mission Vande Bharat today, across 12 countries,” Air India tweeted.
"Phase II of the Mission with AI and AI Express began on Saturday with three flights to Dubai and Abu Dhabi. This phase will cover 40 countries," it said. This includes services from India to the rest of the world.
Over 32,000 stranded Indians will be brought back home from 21 countries under the second phase of the government's mega evacuation mission from May 16 to 22, official sources said on Thursday.
Out of the 149 flights to India, 31 will land in Kerala.
Four flights are expected to arrive in Kerala on Sunday. Two flights will land in Cochin International airport from Dubai and Abu Dhabi on Sunday at 5:40pm and 8:40pm respectively. Another flight will land in Thiruvananthapuram from Muscat at 6:35pm. An Air India flight from Dubai will also land in Kannur at 8:55pm on Sunday.
The government launched the 'Vande Bharat Mission' on May 7 to evacuate Indians stranded in various countries due to coronavirus-related restrictions.
Under the phase one of the mission, the government has evacuated a total of 12,000 Indians from the Gulf region as well as countries like the US, the UK, Philipines, Bangladesh, Malaysia and the Maldives.
Air India along with its subsidiary Air India Express operated a total of 64 flights (42 by Air India and 24 by AI Express) to 12 countries including the US, the UK, Bangladesh, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the Philippines, UAE and Malaysia to repatriate over thousands of Indians in the first phase.
Sources said requests by OCI (Overseas Citizens of India) cardholders can be considered for repatriation after brining back Indian nationals wanting to return home.
"An additional 18 countries to be covered under the second phase, which include Indonesia, Thailand, Australia, Italy, France, Germany, Ireland, Canada, Japan, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Georgia, Tajikistan and Armenia," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said.
"As you can see, we are broadening the ambit every week in a phased manner keeping with our quarantine capacity, health protocols, etc. Till now 1,88,646 Indian nationals have registered to return on the portal," he added.
As per the government's policy for evacuation, Indians having "compelling reasons" to return like pregnant women, elderly people, students and those facing the prospect of deportation are being brought back home.
"The Vande Bharat Mission is the largest and most complex exercise ever undertaken by the government for the repatriation of our nationals stranded overseas," Srivastava said.
He said a total of 904 Indians were repatriated from the Maldives by Indian Navy ships Jalashwa and Magar on May 10 and May 12 respectively.