Vande Bharat Mission: India targets to bring back 100,000 passengers by end of phase II

The Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday said that India targets to bring back 100,000 passengers from 60 countries by the end of Phase II of the Vande Bharat Mission and the planning for the third phase is well underway.

"Vande Bharat Mission (VBM) is in full swing. Phase I has been successfully completed from May 7 - May 16 during which 16,716 stranded Indians returned. We are in Phase II of VBM from May 17 - June 13," said MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava.

5,000 Indians have returned through land border 

The MEA spokesperson said as of Thursday, 45,216 Indians have returned. These include 8,069 migrant workers, 7,656 students and 5,107 professionals. "About 5000 Indians have returned through land border immigration checkpoints from Nepal and Bangladesh. A total number of 3,08,200 persons have registered their request with our Missions abroad for repatriation to India on compelling grounds," the spokesperson said.

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"During phase two, a total of 429 Air India flights (311 international flights + 118 feeder flights) from 60 countries are scheduled to land in India. The Indian Navy will be making four more sorties to bring back returnees from Iran, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives," Srivastava said during an online media briefing.

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'We will be exploring more such options'

"We are also assisting the return of stranded Indians from remote locations in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and parts of Europe. This is being done by taking advantage of foreign carriers flying to India primarily for the evacuation of their nationals. Recently, about 300 stranded Indians from Peru, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Portugal and Netherlands were brought in. We will be exploring more such options," he said.

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As per the government's policy for evacuation, Indians having "compelling reasons" to return like pregnant women, elderly people, students and those facing the prospect of deportation are being brought back home. On 26 May, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had a detailed review meeting of all stakeholders. The focus of the meeting was to ramp up the scale of Vande Bharat Mission and to enhance its efficiency.

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(With agency inputs)