Evacuations by India related to the COVID-19 pandemic


Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the central and state governments of India coordinated numerous international and domestic evacuations.

Background

COVID-19 pandemic

was first identified in the city of Wuhan, Hubei, China in mid-December 2019, when a group of people developed a pneumonia without clear causes, and existing treatments were found to be ineffective. The coronavirus has similar characteristics to severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome, with the resulting disease being named COVID-19. Within a number of weeks, several thousand people in Hubei's provincial capital of Wuhan were infected, and the Chinese central government imposed strict containment measures, including a lockdown of Hubei itself.
As the virus spread worldwide, more countries also instilled their own lockdowns and put travel restrictions into place. In response, many nations evacuated their citizens as well as other nationals to transport them home. India was no exception: to control the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, all visas were suspended from 13 March and international flights were suspended nine days later from 22 March. India had started a national lockdown on 25th March, which restricted the freedom of movement of people in the country.

Migration

The Indian diaspora is the largest in the world, with the UN estimating their size at 17.5 million in 2019. The Ministry of External Affairs has higher figures, with the number of Non-resident Indians or NRIs alone being over 13 million.
In addition, India also has a substantial population of internal migrant workers, with Reuters estimating that there are 100 million such workers.

Previous evacuations

India has conducted several large-scale evacuations in modern times, particularly in the Middle East where there is a high concentration of Indians and several conflicts in recent history. The 1990 airlift of Indians from Kuwait has been recognized as the world's largest civilian airlift, with over 110,000 people evacuated. Domestically, Operation Rahat, which the Indian Air Force claimed was the biggest civilian helicopter evacuation ever, airlifted over 19,600 people from Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh during the 2013 North India floods.

International

January–April 2020

After the lockdown in Hubei, the government owned flag carrier Air India flew to Wuhan to evacuate Indian citizens, particularly students, stranded there. As cases spiked in Italy and Iran, the latter country of which some pilgrims had been stuck in, efforts were shifted to evacuate Indians from Milan and Iranian cities. These flights were free for passengers.
Departure dateEvacueesNationalitiesDeparture airportArrival airportNotes
1 February 2020324Wuhan Tianhe International AirportIndira Gandhi International AirportThis was India's first evacuation flight. There were three minors, 211 students and 110 working professionals, and the flight was operated by Air India.
2 February 2020330 323
7		Wuhan Tianhe International AirportIndira Gandhi International AirportThis was India's second flight. All passengers were quarantined in Delhi and Manesar, Haryana.
27 February 2020111 76
23
6
2
2
1
1
1		Wuhan Tianhe International AirportIndira Gandhi International AirportThis was the third evacuation flight sent by India to Wuhan. India also provided 15 tonnes of medical assistance comprising masks, gloves and other emergency medical equipment to China through the same Indian Air Force flight.
27 February 2020124 119
2
1
1
1		 TokyoNarita International AirportIndira Gandhi International AirportThis flight mostly had crew members of the Diamond Princess as passengers.
10 March 202058 Tehran（Airport unknown）Hindon AirportThe Indian Air Force used a C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft to evacuate Indian pilgrims from Iran.
11 March 202083 74
6
3		 Milan Malpensa AirportIndira Gandhi International AirportThe flight was operated by Air India. All the non-Indian citizens were of Indian origin. All evacuees were placed under quarantine for 14 days.
15 March 2020218 Milan Malpensa AirportIndira Gandhi International AirportAir India operated the flight. The evacuees brought to New Delhi will be shifted to Indo-Tibetan Border Police's camp in Chhawla area where they will be quarantined for 14 days.
15 March 2020234（Airport unknown）Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport131 students and 103 pilgrims, among others, were evacuated from Iran on a Mahan Air flight organized by the Indian Embassy. They were quarantined for 14 days in Indian Army's wellness centre facility in Jaisalmer.
16 March 202053 Tehran and Shiraz（Airport unknown）Jaisalmer Airport52 students and 1 teacher were evacuated by Air India and were then quarantined at an Army Wellness Centre in Jaisalmer.
22 March 2020263 （Airport unknown）Indira Gandhi International AirportEvacuated by Air India from Rome, Italy, and then were quarantined at Indo-Tibetan Border Police's camp near Delhi.
29 March 2020275 （Airport unknown）Jodhpur AirportAfter preliminary screening, they were quarantined at Army Wellness Centre Jodhpur.

May 2020–present: Vande Bharat Mission

The Indian government initiated a massive evacuation program called "Vande Bharat Mission" in May. This involved flights via Air India and its low-cost arm Air India Express, as well as the Indian Navy.
Over 67,000 evacuation requests were registered by MEA by 8 May; twenty days later, the number of registrations had increased to over 300,000. It has been predicted that the total number of civilians evacuated could surpass the Kuwait airlift, with estimates ranging from 192,000 to 250,000.
As well as evacuating Indian nationals back to the country, certain flights will also evacuate anyone who wants to leave, provided they are a national, permanent resident, or have a visa valid for at least one year. Unlike previous evacuations, passengers have to pay for their journey, with fares ranging from for the Gulf states to for the United States.

Phase I

Phase one, which ran from 7–17 May, mostly targeted areas with high concentrations of Indians. It was predicted that this phase would feature a total of 64 flights, half of which were for the Gulf states, as well as two naval ships for Indians in the Maldives under the label "Samudra Setu". The MEA gave a higher number of 84 flights, which may have been due to counting domestic connections on the same plane as a separate flight. As of 15 May, All India Radio reported that 56 flights had been conducted.
Departure dateInbound evacueesOutbound evacueesForeign destinationIndian destinationNotes
7 May 2020177 Abu Dhabi International AirportCochin International AirportFirst flight under the mission. Three passengers on the flight to Kochi later tested positive for COVID-19.
7 May 2020177 Dubai International AirportCalicut International AirportA substantial portion of passengers were pregnant women, stranded infants, and elderly persons taken on humanitarian grounds.
7-8 May 20202340 Singapore Changi International AirportIndira Gandhi International AirportThe flight to Delhi, AI 381, was slightly delayed. Hotels throughout Delhi were prepared to quarantine the evacuees.
12 May 2020177/179 Dubai International AirportMangalore International Airport20 passengers later tested positive for the virus.

This phase started on 17 May and is planned to end on 10 June.
The scope of evacuations was expanded to cover more European and Central Asian countries. It is planned that over 30,000 Indian nationals will be brought to India through 149 flights from 40 countries in this phase.
Departure dateInbound evacueesOutbound evacueesForeign destinationIndian destinationNotes
28 May 2020230 BangladeshTripura
Assam
Meghalaya		Evacuation done over land.

Phase III

This phase started on June 11th
with scheduling over 300 flights from 50 countries This phase is planned to include private airlines.

Phase IV

The fourth phase of Vande Bharat Mission will start on July 3rd. This phase will be mainly focused on Gulf Countries and Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. A total of 1050 flights will be scheduled. Out of 1050 flights 750 flights will be operated by Indian based Private airlines and rest of them will be operated by Air India Express.
Air India will start phase 4 on July 4th. Air India will operate additional flights from India to Europe and the United States from 22nd July 2020 to 31st July 2020 under Vande Bharat Mission

Phase V

The 5th phase is set to begin from 1st August 2020 and will last until 31st August 2020.
Air India will operate more flights to the United States France Germany and the United Kingdom and the UAE and more. Indian based private carriers also operate flights.

Domestic

According to Indian Railways, over 1,000,000 migrant workers along with their families were taken home on Shramik Special trains. For the most part, state governments are taking responsibility to arrange the travel of workers back home. The state of Uttarakhand, a huge source of migrant workers, has had 130,000 applications from residents wishing to get back home.

Reception

The fees levied to passengers have presented a significant barrier to Indians who want to evacuate but did not have enough money to go home. For example, in both the Middle East and domestically in India, migrant workers have not been paid for several weeks, making it difficult for them to afford evacuation flights, trains, and buses. Passengers also raised complaints about inadequate payment and reservation infrastructure for the Vande Bharat mission, with worries about security and the 30-minute time limit to pay.
The mission notably excluded the state of West Bengal. In response, a state minister accused the MEA of discrimination, while Piyush Goyal claimed that the state government had not confirmed quarantine arrangements and that 3,700 people had registered to return there. A couple days later, an evacuation flight from Dhaka, Bangladesh to the state capital Kolkata was confirmed.
The plight of domestic migrant workers in particular caught the attention of media across the world, as the lockdown meant that they could not return home easily after losing their jobs and images of workers walking to their native places became widespread. Negative comparisons have been made between the situation of many domestic migrants and Indians abroad: Shekhar Gupta criticized the media and Modi for focusing on the Vande Bharat Mission and thus the more affluent at the expense of the working class, and some politicians criticised the central government for not focusing on migrant workers enough.
After March, minors born abroad with OCI status or Indian visas were not allowed to travel with their Indian citizen parents back to India due to the earlier suspension of all visas for the country. In response, some MEA officials have proposed allowing some OCIs to be eligible for the flights as well.