Nearly 80 Keralites stranded in Sri Lanka for over two months in the wake of COVID-19 have alleged that the Indian government has been ignoring their demands for repatriation.

Their ordeal continues even after the India government launched the much-publicised Vande Bharat Mission to bring back Indians stranded in different parts of the world on May 7.

The External Affairs Ministry, which co-ordinates the mission, had operated an Air India flight to Mumbai, Bhubaneshwar and Kolkata for 176 Indians on May 28 and the Indian Naval Ship Jalashwa to Tuticorin, but it ignored the plight of Keralites.

The stranded Keralites – mostly students and tourists – are now living with the help of philanthropists.

“All of them have registered with the Indian High Commission and the Department of Non-Resident Keralites' Affairs (NORKA). The Indian government has to arrange a flight or ship. However, there has not been any response from them. The Indian High Commission has also not been able to commit a date (of flight),” T S Prakash, a member of NORKA and Kerala government-organised Lok Kerala Sabha (World Kerala Assembly), told Onmanorama.

Settled in Sri Lanka for the past 25 years, Prakash is the country head of Revlon Lanka Pvt Ltd.

Prakash said his attempts to contact Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan have also not succeeded.

One of the stranded is his niece, Malavika Chandrababu.

“I came to Sri Lanka on a holiday on March 6. I had a return ticket booked for March 17 but I had to postpone it to March 21. However, Indian airports were closed since March 22. I have been staying with my uncle since then,” Malavika, a native of Thiruvananthapuram, said.

Malavika said she had written to the Indian Embassy several times, but did not receive any reply other than the customary acknowledgement. “Though we are safe here, our parents are worried a lot,” she said.

New mom

The stranded people include a woman who delivered a baby girl two weeks ago.

Reshmi, a native of Chengannoor, works at a company in Sri Lanka.

She was planning to go back to Kerala for her delivery on March 20 but she couldn't make the trip due to the lockdown. She delivered the baby by a C-section. She stays at a place some 70 km from Colombo. She is surviving with the help of her company.

Stuck in rented apartment

Anitta Benny Moonjeli, one of the four Keralite students struck in a rented apartment in Colombo, said they have been surviving with the help of Sri Lankan neighbours.

“We came here for an internship till July. However, our office has been closed since mid-March. Our stipend has also been stopped. We are depending our families for money now,” Anitta said.

Anitta and two of her friends are students of the College of Architecture in Thiruvananthapuram while one is from Anna University, Tamil Nadu.

“We haven't received answers from the embassy. We have not even been told whether our names have been included in the list of passengers wishing to return to India,” she said.

Thomas Antony, 65, who retired from a company in Sri Lanka recently, had planned to travel to Kochi for medical check-up as well as his son's engagement. A native of Aluva, he has been working with a tyre manufacturing company and staying with his wife in Colombo. Now, he is alone there as his wife had left for Kerala for some emergency before the lockdown. “We were planning to return together once she came back, but then the unfortunate turn of events took place,” he said.

“We heard that there will be a flight to Bengaluru on June 15. It would be helpful if they can reroute it via Kochi,” Antony said.

Decision soon: NORKA

NORKA CEO Harikrishnan Namboothiri told Onmanorama that the agency is regularly in touch with the embassy to help the stranded Keralites. “The schedule of the third phase of Vande Bharat repatriation mission will be out within two days. We have learned that it will have a flight from Sri Lanka to Kerala,” he said.