FlyAmritsar Initiative & AVM appeals for more humanitarian flights to bring them home
Amritsar, June 17, 2020(Samaj Weekly): As India announced lockdown, thousands of migrant workers from Punjab and others parts of India got stuck in Gulf countries including the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar etc. More than 350,000 Indians registered to return home from the Gulf region alone. According to news reports, Indian consulate in UAE received more than 200,000 requests in the first week of May.
In a joint press release, Sameep Singh Gumtala, Global Convener of the FlyAmritsar Initiative (FAI) and Manmohan Singh, President Amritsar Vikas Manch (AVM) NGO, informed that we are receiving many emails and tweets daily from the stranded workers in UAE. People are in grave medical and personal distress, worth mentioning is the case of a mother who had miscarriage due to stress & strain. This young mother Varsha along with her husband is just one of the thousands of migrant workers stuck across the Gulf countries as COVID-19 spread dealt a blow to the UAE economy.
“We have been waiting for last 3 months, still haven’t got any flight. I need medical treatment because I lost my two-and-half month pregnancy (miscarriage). My husband came to see me on a visitor visa and we are currently living in a bad condition, please help us”, a tweet request posted by Varsha Sharma requesting Indian Consulate in Dubai, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh and many others to get them a seat in repatriation flights, pictures of ultrasound & medical reports were shared in many tweets.
Gumtala said, “when I talked with quite a few people in Dubai, many of them informed me that they registered with the Indian Consulate for flights under Vande Bharat Mission (VBM). Since the start of mission, government has operated many flights but they haven’t received any message about their selection for the flight.” Mr. Gumtala shared that there are many people who are in emergency situation and are complaining that the government doesn’t have enough flights to evacuate thousands of stranded workers from Punjab
It is pertinent to mention that majority of the flights from UAE to India have been operating to Kerala. Government has so far operated more than 127 flights to Kerala whereas Amritsar and Chandigarh got only four and two flights each. The stranded workers especially from North India are complaining that their emails, tweets and postings on social media about their emergency situation are being completely ignored. The twitter accounts of government and leaders seem to be just for announcements by them to show that they are doing great work to bring Indians back home.
In a recent letter to Hon’ble Minister for Civil Aviation S. Hardeep Singh Puri, with copies sent to Minister of External Affairs Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and other government officials, Manch and FlyAmritsar Initiative has thanked the Indian government for making Vande Bharat Mission flights arrangements for bringing back stranded Indians to Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport Amritsar through a series of about eleven evacuation flights from other countries including UAE.
They urged the government for extending help to thousands of Punjabi workers, by immediately scheduling more flights from Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi & other Gulf countries to Amritsar and Chandigarh. At least 30 flights are immediately needed from UAE to bring Punjabi workers registered with the Indian consulate in UAE. Many of the workers are running out of money now to purchase tickets for flights. More than 250 people from Dubai have called us and begging for more repatriation flights
To bring back those with no money, we request the External Affairs Minister to look into urgent dispatch of special Indian Air Force aircraft to fly these stranded workers back home to Punjab. These workers are in great distress, with may suffering from psychological issues. If this is not done, this will become a big crisis with many more running out of money. Many workers are also stuck without passports and not able to return even though they have money with them, said Yogesh Kamra, Convener (India) for the Initiative.
Manch President Manmohan Singh has also fervently appealed to the Cabinet Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, State government of Punjab and leaders of other parties including NRI Affairs Minister Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi, senior leader and former minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla and Rajya Sabha MP Shwait Malik from Amritsar, MP Bhagwant Maan to immediately take up the matter with Government of India. The initiative lauded the efforts of government given a large number of Indians to be flown back from different countries.
