Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday that a total of 3,48,565 citizens have registered so far for repatriation with the India’s diplomatic missions across the world of which 1,07,123 Indians have already been brought back through commercial flights, ships and buses in case of Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. The rest of them are to be brought back in the coming weeks.
With this, the registered number of Indian evacuees has surpassed the previous count of Indians airlifted from Kuwait during the Gulf War of 1990 when Iraq under Saddam Hussein invaded the country.
Out of the total number of citizens evacuated, 17,485 are migrant workers, 11,511 are students and 8,633 are professionals. Apart from this more than 32,000 Indians have returned through the immigration checkpoints at borders with Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
The third phase of the mission will evacuate 38,000 citizens from 31 countries in 337 commercial flights and is to be launched on June 11.
54 and 24 flights will take off from the U.S. and Canada respectively. 11 flights will arrive from Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Mauritius and Seychelles.
Repatriation of Indian citizens is done only those who register to return under ‘compelling grounds’.