The UK government has finally begun the process of evacuating British nationals who have been stranded in India because of the COVID-19 lockdown. The first of the seven special charters will depart from Goa on April 8, and then on April 10 and 12. There will also be flights from Delhi and Mumbai, on April 9 and 11 respectively.
British Acting High Commissioner to India Jan Thompson said: “We know how worrying the past few weeks have been for British nationals in India. I hope this announcement will bring relief, especially to those in greatest need. Due to the large numbers of British travellers involved, the scale of this operation is huge. The UK government continues to work hard with our Indian counterparts in New Delhi and London to arrange a safe journey back for as many people as possible.”
The British government has been criticised by its citizens for being slow to react with evacuations. A number of special evacuation flights have been organised over the last week, as countries flew their citizens home. Israel flew back 1,500 of its people, Afghanistan 2,000—Afghanistan, Russia, Germany, France, all have chartered special flights. Germany ran its 12th evacuation flight, and has airlifted over 3,200 in all. Russia operated four flights, and has temporarily suspended evacuations since Saturday. The US began evacuations on April 4. The UK lockdown started on March 23, much behind the rest of Europe, which had begun lockdown almost two weeks earlier.
In fact, some Britons have been repatriated by the evacuation flights that Germany organised, and many of them reportedly said they felt “ignored” by their government or “ashamed'' of it.
The logistics of evacuations for the UK, however, are much more complex than for other nations. As per the British High Commission, there are 35,000 UK nationals in India, of which 20,000 have contacted the High Commission to say they want to head back as soon as possible. The High Commission said that the more vulnerable people will be given priority.
The COVID-19 pandemic has particularly battered the UK, which has the eighth highest number of patients in the world, nearly 42,000, and over 4,300 are already dead.
