Dubai, May 3: Over 150,000 Indians in the UAE, who wish to return home amid the coronavirus lockdown, have applied through the online registration process to the Indian missions here, according to media reports.
The Indian missions in the country last week opened online registration for the expatriates who wish to fly back home after getting stuck in the country amidst the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
As of 6 pm on Saturday, we received more than 150,000 registrations, Consul General of India in Dubai Vipul told the Gulf News on Saturday.
A quarter of them want to return to their homeland after losing their jobs, he said.
According to a report in the Khaleej Times on Sunday, about 40 per cent of the applicants who have registered are blue-collared workers and 20 per cent are working professionals.
"Roughly 20 per cent have suffered job losses and about 55 per cent of the total applicants are from Kerala," Neeraj Aggarwal, Consul, Press, Information, Culture was quoted as saying in the report.
Aggarwal said that the figures would change as they are expecting registrations from workers from other states, including Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar.
About 10 per cent of the applicants are visit and tourist visa holders who got stranded here due to the ongoing lockdown in India.
India extended the ongoing lockdown by two weeks from May 4 to contain the spread of the coronavirus that has affected nearly 40,000 people in the country.
Aggarwal said that a small number of the applications constitute those from pregnant women and other medical cases.
Since the online registration process was launched, the Consulate's website crashed several times due to the heavy rush of applicants wishing to register to fly back home.
The site has been working fine now though it took a lot of time for it to stabilise in the initial phase due to the heavy traffic, the counsel general said.
He said that the missions here have not yet received any information from the Indian government about the mode of transport of the stranded citizens, the prices of the tickets or how the COVID-19 test results of applicants would be assessed for their journey.
There are high-level discussions going on regarding these things, he said in the report.
Meanwhile, Norka (The Non Resident Keralites Affairs) said it has received a total of 398,000 applications from Keralites across the globe who wish to return home.
"Of which, the highest numbers are from the UAE. At least 175,423 applicants have signed up from the UAE," Norka said in an official statement on Saturday.
It also received 54,305 registrations from Saudi Arabia, 2,437 from the UK, 2,255 from the US, and 1,958 from Ukraine from those who wish to return to India, the Khaleej Times reported.
The coronavirus has infected 13,599 people and claimed 119 lives in the UAE, the Ministry of Health and Prevention said on Saturday.
Comments
Yes those who keep note counting machine at home to count looted money are luteras.
Yes Shaji you are quite correct. Eshvarappa ki zaban pisal gayi.
Very Filthy and dirty person, look at his face and mouth it recall a dirty animal, his comments will take BJP to the bad days that’s why 3 muslims belongs to BJP killd Dipak Rao entire nation knows this fact except Eshwarappa…Useless comments from very useless person.
I think this hate monger gave this statement in error in place of saying "Hindu Killers are with BJP and good Hindus are with Congress + other parties". this hate monger has given this statement in frustration smelling defeat in Karnataka in next election.
"with us or with enemy" is infamous dictum of Fascism & Nazism. This gutter mouth only repeating it. India had Varnashram (Chaturvarn), but now we have PANCHVARN i.e. Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, Shudras and SAFFRONISTS ( the last varna is neither humans nor animals but worse than demons, damned liars, anti-women, anti-nationals and terrorists of worst kind. Check the speech / action of any Sanghi to verify the truth.
Devils also see Muslims as threats to his plan of taking the humanity to hell forever..Wake up guys There is only ONE GOD ALLAH, Know about OUR CREATOR who created U Me and all that exists and When U know your LORD U will definetly recognise the supporters of the devils. Dont fall trap to such leaders and commit voilence and killing people by the orders of the agents of the devils. When death comes no Agents will come to save U if u have committed attrocites against Humanity.
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