PMK youth wing leader and Rajya Sabha member Anbumani Ramadoss on Friday urged Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar, to bring back Indian Tamils stranded in Gulf countries.
In a letter to Dr. Jaishankar, Dr. Ramadoss commended the Minister for the successful implementation of ‘Vande Bharat Mission’, Government of India’s evacuation exercise to bring back Indian citizens stranded in foreign countries amidst the lockdown imposed around the world due to COVID-19.
“About 40 lakh Indian nationals are working in Saudi Arabia, one of the largest country in the Gulf. Tens of thousands of Indian nationals, including Tamil Nadu workers, have lost their jobs, after the imposition of the lockdown due to global coronavirus threats. Apart from them, a considerable amount of Indians, those who went on a three-month business visa to perform minor maintenance and contractual works are also stranded after completing their tasks,” said Dr. Ramadoss.
He added, “It is also learnt that, all our Indians, including Tamils who are stranded in Saudi Arabia have spent all their hard earned money, and now they are in serious financial crunch that they don’t even have enough money for the next meal. On the other hand, the COVID-19 infection is rapidly spreading in Saudi Arabia. Although many Indians have already got infected with coronavirus, the Saudi Arabian government is not ready to provide medical treatment to them. Government hospitals there give priority only to the local citizens.”
Dr. Ramadoss said that though most of them had registered on a website provided under “Vande Bharat Mission” for their return, Indian nationals belonging to Tamil Nadu were subjected to agony, as they could not return home due to lack of special flights to Tamil Nadu.
He further said that Qatar was even worse as the hospitals there refused treatment to Indian nationals including Tamils for any ailments, including coronavirus infections.
“Under ‘Vande Bharat Mission’, special flights are available to various States in India, including Kerala. However, there are no special flights to any part of Tamil Nadu, including Chennai. As a result, the stranded workers from Tamil Nadu, cannot return home and continue to live in constant fear of corona infection,” he said.
“Amongst the Gulf counties, Kuwait is the worst affected country due to corona virus pandemic. Out of the total 11,975 COVID-19 infected people there, more than 4,000 of them are Indian nationals. Our Indian nationals are not given proper medical treatment in Kuwait. In the last few days, more than five Indian nationals belonging to Tamil Nadu have succumbed to COVID-19 infection. Since our Indian nationals, including Tamils, are now living in shelter homes and dormitories in Kuwait for more than a month and the operation of special flights to bring them home is yet to start, they are subjected to huge amount of mental trauma and agony,” he said.
