Vande Bharat Mission: Ariana Afghan Airlines evacuates 3rd batch of stranded Indian citizens from Kabul

New Delhi: The third batch of stranded Indian citizens left Kabul by Ariana Afghan Airlines flight to Delhi on Friday.

The second batch of Indian nationals had left Kabul on an Ariana Afghan Airlines flight on May 19. On May 22, a special Kam Air flight left from Pune with 143 Afghan nationals who were stranded in various Indian cities due to the lockdown.

The phased evacuation is being carried out under phase 2 of the Government of India’s ambitious ‘Vande Bharat’ mission which started on May 16. The third phase of the mission will begin from June 11 and continue till June 30.

Update on Vande Bharat:

After the commencement of the Vande Bharat Mission from 7th May, a total of 454 flights, including foreign carriers, have brought back stranded Indians. As of date, 107123 Indians have returned. These include 17485 migrant workers, 11511 students and 8633 professionals. More than 32000 Indians have returned through land border immigration checkpoints from Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. A total of 3,48,565 persons have registered their requests with our Missions for repatriation to India on compelling grounds.

In addition to these, after the Ministry of Home Affairs’ guidelines of 24 May, 2020 the process of non-scheduled commercial flights has also been streamlined. This has resulted in further facilitation of Indians returning by chartered flights and Air Ambulances. There is a significant increase in the number of returnees via land borders too with the finalization of guidelines in this regard.

Phase 3 of Vande Bharat Mission has already been announced. The list of flights is available on our website. This phase covers more sectors and will create additional hubs in remote regions. Around 38,000 persons are expected to be repatriated under this phase in 337 international flights from 31 countries, including 54 from US, 24 from Canada, 11 flights from 6 African countries (Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, Seychelles, Mauritius).

MEA COVID-19 Control Room is being manned 24×7 by teams from MEA since 16 March 2020. The control room has received more than 25,000 calls and 66,000 emails till 0800 h on 4 June 2020. MEA COVID-19 Cell has also responded to more than 9100 queries on Centralized Public Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) on COVID-19- related issues.