Over 1,000 Indians, including 300 Keralites, are stranded in Malaysia due to the ban on international flights into the country as part of the restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Those stranded have been put up at safer locations, hostels, and hotels with the help of NGOs and community organisations.
Those who came on business trips, for holidaying, workers and their families, and senior citizens are among the stranded persons. As many as 70 are in a shelter of the Indian High Commission, Shaji Aboobacker, a native of Thrissur, said over the phone on Wednesday. Another 350 persons, mostly from Tamil Nadu, are at the airport in Kuala Lumpur.
“We have been knocking at the doors of the Indian Embassy and at the highest level in Kerala and Delhi seeking evacuation or permission to travel on the flights being operated by the Malaysian government from Kuala Lumpur to Indian cities to evacuate their nationals,” says Mr. Aboobacker, who came on a business trip to the Malaysian capital on March 10.
Mr. Aboobacker, managing director of the Nedumbassery-based Technoworld, said that he could not get Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on the phone to seek his intervention in the issue. Union Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraledharan was approached for assistance by his friends and well-wishers.
“The Indian High Commission informed us that it cannot give permission for us to travel back. The ball is now in the court of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Mr. Aboobacker said.
In far-flung areas
Indians stranded are in far-flung areas and communication among them is difficult.
Food and medicines are not a problem as the government is taking care of all citizens. But, he says the mounting COVID-19 positive cases and deaths in Malaysia are a concern.
