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Dubai: 23 NRIs lose passports in New Year fire; get exit papers

January 8, 2016

Dubai, Jan 8: At least 23 Indians affected in the New Year's Eve fire at the Address Downtown Hotel have left the country on emergency exit papers issued by the Indian Consulate in Dubai after they lost their passports in the blaze.

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The belongings of hundreds of hotel guests and residents (including owners and tenants residing in the hotel apartments) in the 63-storey hotel were affected in the fire. The blaze had raged through 40 floors upwards after starting off in the 20th floor a couple of hours before the stunning New Year fireworks at the Burj Khalifa started.

The hotel authorities had coordinated with various embassies and consulates to assist the guests who lost their passports in the fire to travel back to their destinations. In a statement issued last week, Mohamed Alabbar, chairman of Emaar Properties, thanked various embassy and consulate officials in the UAE for their support in facilitating the travel and documentation process for the hotel guests.

The Indian Consulate had set up a special helpline to address queries. The website of the mission continued to scroll the helpline number and email address for contact even until Thursday.

When contacted, an official in charge of the team assisting the fire victims told Khaleej Times the mission had assigned a team of officials to assist the fire victims, and helped many hotel guests leave the country by issuing an emergency certificate, also known as out-pass.

"We had visited the site to enquire about the welfare of the Indians affected in the fire ... and we had been in touch with the hotel authorities," the spokesperson said.

The hotel management, he said, informed the mission that at least 72 occupants were Indian nationals. "We assume they are guests who booked the hotel rooms for New Year celebrations and could have one or more family members also with them."

However, not all of them required help with travel documents. "We issued ... the out-passes for those who lost their passports. Only 23 applications came in for these emergency certificates."

He said the applicants had produced soft copies of their damaged or lost passports as proof. "Most of them had come down from India and a handful of them came from elsewhere, probably."

However, he said the mission has not yet received any applications from the Indian residents in the hotel apartments. "So far, we have handled the applications of only those who came on visit visas."

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News Network
July 28,2020

Dubai, Jul 28: A heart-broken father who lost his 19-year-old son in a tragic car accident during Christmas last year has sponsored the repatriation costs of 61 Indians stranded in the UAE.

 The special flydubai repatriation flight, chartered by the All Kerala Colleges Alumni Federation (Akcaf) volunteer group, of which he is a member of, departed from Dubai to Kochi on July 25 carrying 199 passengers.

 On this particular flight, I sponsored 55 air tickets," said TN Krishnakumar, a sales and marketing director. He had lost his son Rohit Krishnakumar in a car accident, which also claimed the life of the teen's friend, Sharat Kumar (21).

"All passengers who were registered with the Indian missions were also asked to register on the Akcaf volunteer group website. Each passenger was further vetted, after which we made home visits to ensure that all the applicants were genuinely in need of financial support and repatriation," he said.

Commenting on what inspired him to dedicate himself to community work, Krishankumar said: "When a situation like this comes up, you realise there is no meaning in money. I invested everything I made into my son, and that had crashed in front of my eyes. He was a third-year medical student at the University of Manchester in the UK and had returned home for a vacation when the accident took place. Since then, I have been involved in a lot of social activities. If I do not do this, there is no meaning to my existence."

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Krishnakumar said the group has supported thousands of individuals in need of help. "We supported unemployed people with several hundred bags of grocery kits and other necessary items. We also supported Covid-19 patients by transferring them to the medical facility in Warsan, etc.," he said.

"I come from a very middle-class family. I got a scholarship to study in college, and I studied with the help of taxpayers' money. I have always wanted to give back to society. I have grown immensely in life and now is my time to give back.," he added.

Krishnakumar also sponsors the education of over 1,000 academically gifted school children in Kerala's government-aided schools. He is a life trustee at the College of Engineering Trivandrum Alumni Galaxy Charitable Trust and an active participant towards various educational causes.

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News Network
July 9,2020

Dubai, Jul 9: The Government of India has announced an additional 104 special repatriation flights from the UAE to India as part of the Vande Bharat Mission, Phase 4 from July 15 - 31.

According to a flight schedule listed on the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) website, national carriers Air India and Air India Express flights have been scheduled to various cities in 10 Indian states. Each flight has a capacity of 177 passengers.

Vande Bharat Phase 4 officially began on July 3, and in an earlier press briefing Anurag Srivastava, spokesperson of India's Ministry of External Affairs had said 'Phase 4 will focus on repatriation of Gulf-based Indians.

The new additional flights have been organised to cities in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Delhi, Telangana, Punjab, Haryana, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, and Rajasthan, according to the MEA schedule. To the joy of expats from Maharashtra, at least seven flights have been planned to Mumbai, which has been a less serviced state since the start of the Vande Bharat Mission.

Consul Press, Information, and Culture, Consulate General of India in Dubai Neeraj Agarwal said, "Approximately 100 repatriation flights are planned for the next 23 days, including 50 from Dubai and Sharjah each. If all flights are full, we are looking to evacuate anything between 17,000 to 18,000 passengers in the coming days."

Booking for the newly announced flights will open soon, said Agarwal. "Some of them are already open, and others will be open in the next few days. However, a few flights are subject to slot approvals," he explained.

Commenting on the possibility of flights from India to the UAE, Agarwal said, "We express hope that this too will happen soon."  The flight schedule can be seen here: https://www.mea.gov.in/phase-4.htm

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News Network
January 7,2020

Tehran, Jan 7: Iranian state television says 35 people have been killed and 50 others injured in a stampede that erupted at a funeral procession for a general slain in a US airstrike.

The TV says the stampede erupted in Kerman, the hometown of Gen. Qassem Soleimani where the procession was underway on Tuesday.

A procession in Tehran on Monday drew over 1 million people in the Iranian capital, crowding both main thoroughfares and side streets in Tehran.

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