Australians who are stuck in remote places in India amid the coronavirus lockdown are requesting Indian and Australian officials to make special arrangements to rescue them.
Highlights:
- Thousands of Australians stranded in different parts of India have urged authorities to bring them back.
- Some have managed to return through charter flights, but many of them could not make it as they are in the remote areas.
- Air and train services in India remain suspended as the country is under lockdown since 24 March.
Vamshi Sridharpalli, a resident of Melbourne who s been stranded in Hyderabad since March, says many people could not make the charter flights.
“There are many women with small children, and they are not able to travel for 12 hours to Chennai by bus,” said Mr Krishna.
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“There are pregnant women who do not want to risk travelling from their particular places (to Chennai). Some of the people may be living 300 kilometres further from Hyderabad also. They had had to travel to Hyderabad first and then to Chennai. Some of them did not have this choice because of that reason.”
Some charter flights have been arranged to bring Australians back from different cities of India. At least six such flights have taken off from Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi.
However, hundreds of people are still stranded in cities and villages far away from these cities.
The Lion Air chartered flight that brought hundreds of Australians from India last month. Source: Supplied: Tinson Thomas
Sridharpalli says he is trying to talk to local authorities to get connecting flights from smaller cities to main airports.
I think this is a time when the government takes care of us.
"I am sure Australian government has been very generous by providing job keeper payments, trying to quarantine people in good hotels and they are doing their best but, I still request them if they can find an option to evacuate the Australians from here, (we) will be very thankful,” he said.
India has been under lockdown since 24 March, and by the time the lockdown ends, it will be over 41 days without the ability to travel for Indians.
“Because of this, people are stranded in foreign countries away from their families and in some cases living in dire conditions in Indian embassy buildings. There are people stranded in India who came to visit their families and are now unable to leave,” reads the petition which has been signed by over 2,000 people.
It says, “The inability to return to the destination of choice is causing a lot of problems for people, including but not limited to loss of employment, financial burden and debt due to loss of income, loss of immigration status, anxiety. If the air traffic is not restored soon, people’s lives will be severely upended, and people will have to suffer the consequences of it for years to come.”
Source: Supplied: Tinson Thomas
More than 5,000 Australians, including permanent residents stranded in India, have come together through a Facebook group - Australians Stuck in India and signed up for these select flights.
Also on SBS Hindi:
More than 1500 stranded in India return to Australia
Over the last two weeks, five flights have brought back at least 1500 people stranded in India to Melbourne and Adelaide where they are being quarantined in hotels arranged by the state governments.
Follow SBS Hindi’s special coverage of COVID-19 outbreak
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If you believe you may have contracted the virus, call your doctor, don’t visit, or contact the national Coronavirus Health Information Hotline on 1800 020 080.
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