Over 10,645 Indians have been repatriated from Qatar in 61 flights till now, Embassy of India in Qatar revealed.
While the Indian government arranged 33 of those flights under their Vande Bharat Mission, 26 of them were company-hired charter flights and two community-hired charters.
The community-hired charters arranged by Indian Community Benevolent Fund, an apex body of Indian Embassy in Qatar, and Incas Qatar left Doha today for Bangalore and Kochi respectively.
“We organized the flight to help the people from Karnataka who wanted to go back, in coordination with the Indian Embassy, at an affordable rate very close to Vande Bharat fare. We also provided 10 free tickets to the needy,” ICBF Joint Secretary Subramanya Hebagalu told The Peninsula.
The Bangalore flight carried 180 adults and 5 infants and left Doha at 11 am.
“ICBF is planning to organise more flights to Karnataka and also to other states in the coming days,” he added.
The Incas Qatar arranged charter left for Kochi with 176 passengers including 5 infants at 2am on Monday.
Incas Qatar officials with the passenger at HIA
“We chartered the flight after receiving many calls for help and we choose people from the list registered with Indian Embassy depending on the needs and we also gave 5 tickets free to people who are having financial difficulties,” Sameer Eramala, President, Incas Qatar told The Peninsula.
Incas has permission for 10 more flights to all four airports in Kerala. They have one leaving on June 18 and another on 19. Rest of the dates are not finalized yet.
Many Indian community organisations are trying to get permissions from respective governments and other bodies to hire chartered flights to take their members, who wish to go back, home.
“Taking #VBM flights (33), company-hired charters (26) & community-hired charters (2) into account, we have managed to facilitate, until now, 61 flights from Qatar to India, helping repatriate 10,645 passengers (including 172 infants),” Indian embassy tweeted today.
There are 17 more flights scheduled in June as part of the Indian Government’s mission.
Revised List for #VandeBharatMission flights from Doha for the rest of June 2020: pic.twitter.com/G7oqGXav5K
— India in Qatar (@IndEmbDoha) June 14, 2020
