Combating coronavirus: Over 150,000 Indians register on missions' repatriation website

Over 150,000 Indians have registered on the online portal collecting data of citizens wishing to travel home amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Consulate- General of India in Dubai revealed. As of Saturday night, approximately 157,000 Indians have registered on web portal since its launch on Wednesday.

About 40 per cent of the applicants are blue- collared workers and 20 per cent are working professionals, said a Consulate official. "Roughly 20 per cent have suffered job losses and about 55 per cent of the total applicants are from Kerala," Neeraj Aggarwal, Consul, Press, Information, Culture told Khaleej Times.

"However, we predict these figures would change as we are also expecting registrations from workers in other states including Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar," he added. About 10 per cent of the applicants are also visit and tourist visa holders who got stranded here following the ongoing lockdown in India. A small number of the applications have also come through from pregnant women, medical cases, said Aggarwal.

Meanwhile, the Kerala government's welfare body Norka-Roots said it has received a total of 398,000 applications from Keralites across the globe who are wishing to return home. "Of which, the highest numbers are from the UAE. At least 175,423 applicants have signed up from the UAE," said Norka in an official statement on Saturday.

Furthermore, Norka has received 54,305 registrations from Saudi Arabia, 2,437 from the United Kingdom, 2,255 from the United States of America, and 1,958 expatriates from Ukraine have registered to return.

Media reports from India suggests that the Government of India is presently working on a mega evacuation plan using commercial aircrafts, naval ships, and the military to evacuate the stranded Indians.

dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com 

Dhanusha Gokulan

Originally from India, Dhanusha Gokulan has been working as a journalist for 10 years. She has a keen interest in writing about issues that plague the common person and will never turn down a human interest story. She completed her Bachelor in Arts in Journalism, Economics and English Literature from Mangalore University in 2008. In her spare time, she dabbles with some singing/songwriting, loves travelling and Audible is her favourite mobile application. Tweet at her @wordjunkie88