Sunday 19 / May / 2024
Muscat: Repatriation flights used to fly Indian nationals out of Oman have also brought back 63 of them to Oman, during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The Indians were either students whose family members were living in Oman, or those who’d gone there for medical treatment and on holiday.
“11 people returned from Chennai, 15 from Mumbai and 37 from Hyderabad,” said Suhail Khan, founder of the Deccan Wing of the Indian Social Club – Muscat, which has helped organised many chartered flights to fly out and bring back Indian nationals from and to Oman, during these times. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs gives permission to only a limited number of flights at a time, so as and when possible, we aim to provide all assistance available.
Referring to the flights organised to Mumbai and Chennai, he said, “these passengers were put on Vande Bharat flights that were coming to Muscat. In terms of the flight from Hyderabad, we were fortunate that there was a SalamAir flight going there, so we were able to accommodate all the passengers on board.”
“These people’s families had been split due to the pandemic – many of them had travelled there and were unable to return, so we decided to coordinate with the Embassy of India here and get it done through them,” he explained. “Once the embassy approached MOFA and we approached them as well, permission was given and we needed to provide certain documents to them as part of the approval process.”
The names, passport numbers and resident ID numbers of all the people who wished to return were provided in a list to the ministry, which then allowed prospective passengers to book tickets and fly back to Oman.
“I would like to thank our close friend, Omani national Mohammed Zaheer, who did quite a lot for us in organising these flights,” explained Khan.
