The Coronavirus Pandemic has also affected the educational systems worldwide, leading to the widespread closures of schools, colleges, and universities. Here, we will discuss the current scenario of COVID-19, evacuation of Indian nationals (including students) stranded abroad, the standard operating protocol by the ministry of home affairs for evacuation, and countries included in the first phase of evacuation, which started on 7th May 2020.
During this time of the pandemic, many people are in distress due to the lockdown. The pandemic has affected the daily lives of the people on a large scale be it employment, business, or tourism so the Indian government has thought of evacuating its nationals from abroad.
Evacuation simply means the act of moving people from one place to some other place due to some emergency. At this time every nation wants to keep its citizens safe with respect to this, the Indian government has started the evacuation process in a phased manner. The 1st phase started from 7th to 13th May and the second phase of evacuation will commence from the 16th of May.
The first evacuation due to coronavirus was done in Wuhan, China, Iran, and Milan that is in Italy because they were the countries most hit by the virus. People were only evacuated from these places. From the imposition of the travel restrictions, no evacuation was done from any other country till 7th May 2020. The External Affairs Minister made it clear that the Indian embassy is taking all the steps towards Indian national’s safety stuck in any country.
During the 1st phase of evacuation, Indian nationals evacuated from 12 countries. This evacuation was for the Indian nationals who were in distress due to the lengthy period of lockdown and due to this, they wanted to return to their nation immediately. But if you are safe and secure where you are at this moment then it would be better that you do not move because everyone is in quarantine these days. It is one of the most crucial measures to keep yourself safe from the pandemic. Until there is no vaccine or medication available for it, let prevention be the cure!
There are planned flights for every country. The prices of all the flight arrangements will be paid by travelers on their own. There is a fixed price range as per the countries that are between 12,000 to 1 lakhs rupees.
To evacuate Indian nationals there should be a protocol that should be followed by everyone so the ministry of Home Affairs has issued a detailed protocol list that is the standard operating procedure for people who desire of traveling back to their nation from abroad and also for people who are stranded in India.
So let’s start with the protocol one by one!
These protocols are for Indian citizens who have traveled abroad before lockdown due to employment, studies, tourism, business or internship, or in the case of death of a family member or health emergency.