Putting an end to their 50-day ordeal, three Keralites stranded at the Dubai International Airport will fly down in the maiden evacuation flight to the Calicut International Airport on Thursday.
Nineteen Indians have been stranded at Dubai airport following the global travel restrictions from March 18. They would be returning on priority basis during the different legs of the evacuation process.
“Yes, we are definitely relieved. We have been working in Lisbon for more than two years and when the pandemic crisis started we decided to fly out. Unfortunately we were not allowed to board the flight from Dubai as the Indian government restricted inbound passengers from Europe,” Jackson Andrews, one of the twin brothers, stranded at the airport told The Hindu .
The Andrews are from Thiruvananthapuram, but they will reach Calicut airport. Both of them, like all others, had been initially sleeping on the benches, using the washrooms and survived on food coupons at the Terminal-3 of the airport.
Later the Consul General of India in Dubai in alliance with Emirates airlines arranged hotel rooms inside the terminal. Also, they were given five-star service including free wifi at the airport after they were screened for COVID-19. They had tested negative.
Arun, an IT professional who had transited the Dubai airport from Europe and had missed his flight to Thiruvananthapuram owing to bad weather, is another Keralite stuck at the airport for last 45 days. “Now I have received an intimation from the Consul to return to Kozhikode, possibly on Thursday,” he said.
Of the Indians stranded in Dubai, five are from Kerala, four are from Gujarat and others from Goa, Karnataka, Delhi and Rajasthan. Some of them are coping with the gloom while others have become depressed even as a camaraderie has grown among them.
An expatriate missed the final boarding call after dozing off at the airport.
“The Indian Embassy had arranged facilities for us. We have been provided separate rooms and taken care of,” Iqbal Hussein, a native of Ahmedabad, who missed his flight in Dubai via transiting from Tanzania.
However, the case of Raju Nair, a native of Kozhikode who is running a restaurant in Russia for the last 30 years, is different. “I was going to Moscow when the travel ban was put in place from March 22. I was returning after visiting my parents. My family is in Moscow,” he said.
He does not have any idea about taking a flight to Russia. Passengers have been banned entry into Russia since March 6. But there are some provisions. “I am waiting for a positive response from the authorities,” said Mr. Nair, who holds an Indian passport.
