Nearly 15,000 Indian expats repatriated home

Muscat: Repatriation flights by the Indian government, as well as charter flights set up by private organisations, have flown back nearly 15,000 Indian nationals living in Oman, who wished to travel to their home country during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
As of June 20, 42 repatriation flights have been organised under the government’s Vande Bharat Mission, and a further 40 charter flights. A total of 14,855 passengers have been flown home on these aircraft.
More flights are expected to be announced in the coming days.
“A large number of Indians desire to travel to India for their own reasons, and this is natural, because before the outbreak of COVID-19, we used to have close to 250 flights a week between our two countries,” Munu Mahawar, the ambassador of India to Oman, had said.
“Therefore, the number of people travelling was expected to be high, but we are deliberately not releasing the numbers of people who have registered to travel, because all those who have registered might not necessarily be travelling," he added.
To ensure people who urgently need to travel to India are able to fly home, the embassy has been working very closely with the government of Oman and the various authorities in the country to deal with the challenges emanating from the COVID-19 crisis.
“I would say that cooperation between India and Oman has been in the true spirit of this close relationship that we have between our two countries,” added Mahawar.