The United Arab Emirate (UAE) government has decided to extend the suspension of flight services from India till July 6. The decision has been taken in response to Covid management in the UAE.
The decision, however, will hamper the job prospects of thousands of Indians who are stuck in India either due to a travel ban or due to vaccination.
Soon after the decision, India’s budget airline, Air India Express, announced the suspension extension. In its tweet on Tuesday, the Air India Express said the movement of passengers (excluding UAE nationals) to the UAE from India would remain suspended until July 6.
The passengers who were booked to travel in that period could reschedule their tickets, the Air India Express tweet said. Other major UAE carriers, Emirates and Etihad, were yet to announce the extension of the suspension of flights from India till Tuesday.
Earlier the UAE had announced the suspension of flights from India on April 24 due to the Covid-19 situation. The restrictions got extended periodically.
The UAE extended the ban on travellers from India several times due to Covid restrictions. UAE nationals, diplomats and holders of the UAE golden visa are exempted from this ban.
The stranded expatriates are exploring charter services or via ‘transit’ stops such as Bahrain or former Soviet states such as Uzbekistan to fulfil the 14-day ‘quarantine’ period outside India and come back to the UAE.
From Tuesday, the United States has also put restrictions on flights from India into US airports. This decision is mainly affecting the Indian nationals.
Though the number of cases in India has come down drastically to about 100,000 cases per day, the restrictions on flights from India were announced. India witnessed a huge surge in cases in the second wave, and the number of cases went up to 400,000 per day.
The Covid cases have come down drastically. Indians who work abroad and currently stuck in India due to these bans are looking for opportunities to travel to their workstations.
Meanwhile, thousands of H-1B, H-4 visa holders are stuck in India due to US Covid travel restrictions. Their plans to return have been thwarted by the travel restrictions from India imposed by the US administration, covering most non-immigrants, in the light of the sharp surge in Covid-19 cases. The travel restrictions were followed by the temporary suspension of routine visa services.
Recently Indian State Kerala’s legislator VD Satheesan raised the issue of Gulf-bound NRIs from Kerala regarding giving them second dose of Covishield at the earliest.
He called for the second dose of Covishield to NRIs with the minimum gap of four weeks or to request the Gulf countries to accept the Covaxin certificate to facilitate them to back to their respective work countries and resume duty.
As per the central government guidelines, the second dose of Covishield can be administered after the minimum gap of 12 weeks and the vaccine certificate can be downloaded only after that.
