India launches sixth batch of repatriation flights from Gulf


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Another series of repatriation flights for Indian citizens in the Gulf will begin on Tuesday.

Indian residents in the UAE planning to return home are no longer required to register on the website set up by the consulate in Dubai.

On Monday, the Ministry of External Affairs said the sixth batch of flights were scheduled after the Indian government ruled out any imminent resumption of regular commercial international services.

They will repatriate Indian citizens who wish to return home from the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar throughout September.

The Indian government has been operating repatriation flights for its citizens since the outbreak, to bring back people who have lost jobs abroad or wish to return home amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

There is no restriction from the Indian side for any traveller to come to UAE from India, nor there is any registration process for people travelling from India to UAE

Under the mission, called Vande Barahat, or Salute India, more than 1.2 million Indians have been repatriated from all over the globe, officials said.

Hundreds of thousands of those passengers have flown from the Emirates thanks to the joint efforts of authorities from both nations.

"Phase 6 of Vande Bharat Mission is scheduled to begin on September 1," said Anurag Srivastava, spokesman for the ministry.

"Based on an assessment of demand by our missions and posts abroad, flights are being scheduled by Air India Group and private carriers."

Mr Srivastava said flights would now also operate from Kuwait.

"In addition, the number of flights from other GCC countries has been further augmented," he said.

The Indian Minister for Civil Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri, said negotiations on air travel arrangements with 18 more countries were continuing.

"This will benefit stranded Indians and nationals of these countries," Mr Puri said.

Previously, Indian residents in the UAE who wanted to be repatriated would have to register details of their passport and the city they wished to travel to before heading back to India.

About 370,000 Indians have left the UAE for India from the more than 600,000 who signed up for repatriation in May.

The Indian consulate in Dubai said on Tuesday that it had scrapped the registration process since India and the UAE would continue the “air bubble agreement.'

The consulate said since a number of flights were being operated by both UAE and Indian carriers and tickets were available online.

Travellers to India were reminded to complete a PCR Covid-19 test and upload it to the Air Suvidha portal at newdelhiairport.in to be exempt from quarantine at all airports in India.

The PCR swab test was not mandatory but highly recommended, the consulate said.

People travelling from India to the Emirates were advised to follow guidelines issued by the UAE government, including the mandatory PCR test and getting approval from immigration authorities if needed.

Travellers on visit visa require travel and health insurance for the length of their stay in the Emirates.

“There is no restriction from the Indian side for any traveller to come to UAE from India, nor there is any registration process for people travelling from India to UAE,” the consulate said.

On Monday, Air India announced its tentative schedule for Vande Bharat Phase 6 flights from Dubai, Bahrain and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia from September 1 until October 24.

And Air India Express announced its tentative schedule from Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Muscat, Bahrain, Kuwait and Doha for September.

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Navdeep Suri, India's Ambassador to the UAE

There has been a longstanding need from the Indian community to have a religious premises where they can practise their beliefs. Currently there is a very, very small temple in Bur Dubai and the community has outgrown this. So this will be a major temple and open to all denominations and a place should reflect India’s diversity.

It fits so well into the UAE’s own commitment to tolerance and pluralism and coming in the year of tolerance gives it that extra dimension.

What we will see on April 20 is the foundation ceremony and we expect a pretty broad cross section of the Indian community to be present, both from the UAE and abroad. The Hindu group that is building the temple will have their holiest leader attending – and we expect very senior representation from the leadership of the UAE.

When the designs were taken to the leadership, there were two clear options. There was a New Jersey model with a rectangular structure with the temple recessed inside so it was not too visible from the outside and another was the Neasden temple in London with the spires in its classical shape. And they said: look we said we wanted a temple so it should look like a temple. So this should be a classical style temple in all its glory.

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This is going to be the big temple where I expect people to come from across the country at major festivals and occasions.

It is hugely important – it will take a couple of years to complete given the scale. It is going to be remarkable and will contribute something not just to the landscape in terms of visual architecture but also to the ethos. Here will be a real representation of UAE’s pluralism.

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She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.

A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.

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Messi at the Copa America

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"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008

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