Indian twins, stuck at Dubai airport for 50 days, set to fly home

Dubai - They slept on airport benches initially, after which they were provided hotel accommodation.

Tired, homesick and desperate to return home, Indian identical twins Jackson and Benson Andrews breathed a huge sigh of relief when they received an e-mail from the Consulate General of India in Dubai on Tuesday.

The 30-year-old brothers, who have been stranded inside the Dubai International Airport's terminal 3 for nearly 50 days, are among the 170-odd passengers who will be boarding the first repatriation flight to Kozhikode in Kerala on Thursday, May 7. The twins are among the 19 Indian passengers who have been stuck inside the airport for over a month.

"We received the letter from the consulate on Tuesday. A copy of our flight tickets have been sent to us as well," Jackson told Khaleej Times. Press consul at the consulate, Neeraj Aggarwal, said, "Based on the schedule of flights and the destination of passengers, these 19 stranded Indians will all be flying out on priority in the coming week."

Originally from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, Benson and Jackson were working in Lisbon, Portugal when the crisis hit. They were transiting through Dubai when India announced a lockdown and suspended all domestic and international flights.

After weeks of uncertainty, India finally announced it will begin repatriation operations of stranded Indian citizens abroad starting May 7. From the UAE, at least 200,000 Indian citizens have registered on the web portal collecting data of persons wishing to return home.

"We are Indian citizens and have been working in Portugal for two years now. We decided to leave Lisbon when the situation was getting increasingly bad in Europe," said Jackson. The twins, who work in retail, said they used to live in the outskirts of Lisbon city.

"We were also due to get our residency cards. But, the offices giving these cards closed down as well. We decided to leave the city fearing the lockdown situation and we believed we would be safer in India," explained Jackson.

The brothers left from Lisbon on March 18 at 12pm and landed in Dubai at 2am the following day to take a flight to Thiruvananthapuram. "When we went to board the flight, we were told that we needed a 'Ok to board' permission from the airport in India. However, since we were passengers from Europe, we were not granted permission. Only my brother and I were not allowed to board," explained Jackson.

Though several flights continued to go to India till March 22, the twins got stranded at the airport. "For the first 10 days, we were sleeping on the airport benches. Finally, airport authorities and the consulate arranged hotel rooms for us inside the airport," said Jackson. "We have no reason to complain. We were given five-star service here. however, we miss home," he added.  Though the brothers are apprehensive about spending 14-days in quarantine in Kozhikode, Jackson said, "At least we are close to home."

dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com

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