Kolkata consular official briefs Queen Elizabeth on COVID-19 repatriation

Queen Elizabeth II heard at length from a Kolkata-based Indian consular officer at a British Deputy High Commission about close collaboration between UK and India during repatriation efforts related to COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

Sanjibita Tariang, who works at British Deputy High Commission in Kolkata, narrated her experience on Friday of helping stranded British travellers get home during India's lockdown.

She described how “UK in India” team rose to “unprecedented” challenges posed by COVID-19 and helped repatriate stranded British citizens back to UK through collaborative working between Indian and British authorities.

“Organising repatriation flights was a huge and complex operation involving thorough planning and coordination. We also h to obtain movement permissions during a nationwide lockdown — main challenge was to organise transport from remote places like Meghalaya and Manipur for a journey spanning 32 hours,” said Tariang, Regional Consular Development Officer at British Deputy High Commission in Kolkata.

“I used my local networks and Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Nepali langu skills to organise a safe journey for some of most vulnerable and elderly British nationals. It was with support of Indian authorities and great teamwork across UKinIndia network that we could successfully organise this operation,” she said.

As an example of some of complexities involved in repatriation operation, Tariang recalled arranging a bus all way from Shillong to Kolkata, requesting assistance from police officers to help passengers cross borders and getting hotels to open ir restaurants for dinner and packing breakfast for long journeys — all so passengers could catch ir flight in nick of time.

UK repatriated nearly 18,000 travellers from India on 66 charter flights, from 11 Indian cities, between April and June.

During interaction last week, Queen spoke to staff who worked on that major logistical operation and also heard about work UK government is doing internationally to develop a vaccine.

“ India repatriation effort was biggest globally for UK. I am delighted that Her Majesty h opportunity to hear from Sanjibita, one of our excellent consular officers, about huge amount of work and excellent UK-India collaboration that went into making it happen,” said Sir Philip Barton, UK High Commissioner to India.

“Beyond repatriation effort, UK and India are working toger to combat effects of COVID-19. A vaccine — developed in UK and manufactured in India, benefitting whole world — is ultimate goal,” he said.

engment took place during a virtual unveiling of a new portrait of Queen. artwork, painted by artist Miriam Escofet, will be on display in refurbished reception of new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, British High Commission in New Delhi said.

During virtual engment, Queen is said to have praised UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) staff members for ir work in responding to COVID-19 pandemic.

(AP Im)