‘Repatriate Punjabi migrants stranded in Gulf countries’

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, June 17

FlyAmritsar Initiative (FAI) and the Amritsar Vikas Manch have called upon the government to help repatriate thousands of Punjabi migrant workers stuck in the Gulf countries. More than 3.50 lakh Indians have registered to return home from the Gulf region alone and the Indian consulate in the UAE has received more than 2,00,000 requests in the first week of May.

In a joint press release, Sameep Singh Gumtala, Global Convener of the FlyAmritsar Initiative and Manmohan Singh, President Amritsar Vikas Manch (AVM) NGO urged the government to kick off more humanitarian flights to bring them home.

As India had announced lockdown, thousands of migrant workers from Punjab and others parts of India got stuck in the Gulf countries, including the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar.

They said, “We have been receiving many emails from the stranded workers in UAE. People are in grave medical and personal distress, worth mentioning is the case of a mother who had her miscarriage due to stress and strain. A young mother Varsha, along with her husband, is just one of the thousands of migrant workers stuck across the Gulf countries as Covid-19 dealt a blow to the UAE economy.”

A request through tweet was posted by stranded migrants of Punjabi origin Varsha Sharma, requesting Indian Consulate in Dubai, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh and many others to help them get a seat in repatriation flights.

“We have been waiting for the past three months and still haven’t got any flight. I need medical treatment as I had a miscarriage. My husband came to see me on a visitor visa and we are currently residing in a bad condition, please help us,” she commented.

Gumtala said, “When I talked to a few people in Dubai, many of them informed me that they registered with the Indian Consulate for flights under the Vande Bharat Mission (VBM). Since the beginning of the mission, government has operated many flights, but they haven’t received any message about the selection of their flight.”

In a letter to Minister for Civil Aviation 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 urged the government to extend help to thousands of Punjabi workers, by immediately scheduling more flights from Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and 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, said Yogesh Kamra, Convener (India) for the Initiative.