Vande Bharat Mission to evacuate struggling expats from foreign soil due to covid 19

The ‘Vande Bharat Mission’ to evacuate Indian citizens is expected to cover Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Spain and east Europe in the third week of May, informed sources said here on Friday. The process of repatriation, which is focused on the Gulf and the South Asian regions, began on Thursday and is expected to involve 64 flights, bringing back 15,000 nationals from different parts of the world through 14 Indian airports.

“As of now, 67,833 requests for repatriation have been registered. The Ministry of External Affairs has developed a dynamic online platform on which requests received by Indian Missions from Indian nationals wishing to return are regularly being uploaded,” said a source with knowledge of the operation scheduled from May 7 to 15. The operation is officially named ‘Vande Bharat Mission’. Following arrival, all Indian citizens will have to spend the mandatory quarantine period in a government facility to avoid spread of COVID-19.

Russia and Ukraine have flown out a substantial number of their citizens from India in the last few weeks, even as several thousand Indians remain stranded in the two countries and east European countries such as Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. A Ukrainian diplomatic source said at least 15,000 Indians are in Ukraine. “Our assessment is that at least 4,000 Indians would be willing to be airlifted from Ukraine.” A number of flights to Thailand are expected to be part of Phase-II.