Twins Benson and Jackson Andrews said they are thrilled to finally be home after spending 50 days in limbo at Dubai International Airport when airports in India closed while they were in transit.
Now in mandatory quarantine at a hospital in Kerala state, the pair told The National they are looking forward to seeing their parents when they are given the all-clear.
The 30-year-old identical twins were caught inside Dubai’s Terminal 3 after flying in from Lisbon on March 19, the same day that India closed airports to all passengers from Europe to halt the spread of coronavirus. The country subsequently banned all flights and implemented the world’s largest lockdown to try to slow the spread.
“We were stunned. We had our boarding pass and tickets in hand but suddenly we were told that we cannot go home… we were clueless,” said Benson, who along with his brother arrived in India on a special flight.
The pair, who work as cashiers at a supermarket in Lisbon, had been planning for the trip for almost two years and were looking forward to spending their holiday with their parents in the state capital Thiruvananthapuram.
“We were desperately looking to fly back to India and meet our parents. But no flights were allowing boarding to us and slowly all flights to India were shut,” he said.
For the first 10 days, the brothers were restricted to the terminal building, sleeping on the benches and spending up to $200 (Dh734) of their savings on food. They say they feared contracting the virus from one of the thousands of passengers that thronged the airport every day.
Without their luggage, the pair wore the same clothes for almost a week before a friend brought them essential items at the airport gate, including something warm to stave off the cool airport air conditioning.
“These were the most horrifying days of my life. It was like a nightmare. I had sleepless nights,” Jackson said of the time before authorities paid for them to stay in a hotel within the terminal on the eleventh day.
“Even though we had food and a room, we were stuck with no promise of going home sooner,” he said.
For weeks, their desperation was echoed by tens of thousands of Indians stranded across the globe, clamouring to return to their homes and calling on the Indian government to launch a special repatriation program.
India, where more than 70,000 Covid-19 cases have been detected, is under a 10-week lockdown that began in late March.
The twins were among the 354 Indians, including 11 pregnant women, who were flown from Dubai to Kochi on May 7 under the Indian government scheme that gives priority to stranded tourists, students, people with life-threatening conditions and pregnant women.
So far, some 9,000 people have been brought back in nearly 70 flights from across the globe.
More than 1,000 among them were from the UAE, where some 200,000 requests have been made by Indians wanting to return home.
For Athira Geetha Sreedharan, a 32-week pregnant woman who was among the first batch repatriated to India, the over three-hour journey was nothing short of a miracle.
The 27-year-old mother-to-be from Kozhikode in Kerala lived with her mechanical engineer husband Nithin Sreedharan, 29, in Dubai.
She had plans to return to her home state for the delivery of her first child and had even approached India’s Supreme Court for help returning when the lockdown was imposed.
The young couple said they were worried about remaining in the UAE as Mr Sreedharan works at a construction company, a sector not shut down during the country’s lockdown and a job that involved meeting numerous people every day.
"It is my first baby and I am a little scared. I wanted to be with my parents for the birth of my child. I had already planned to travel back to India but couldn't because of the lockdown. We have no relative in Dubai…I was sad," Athira told The National.
The heavily pregnant woman completed her journey wearing a complete PPE, despite feeling suffocated and restless, the mother-to-be said she was only thinking about being with her parents.
On the same flight, Professor PJ Joy flew with his 91-year-old mother Thresiya Joseph.
They were visiting Mr Joy’s sister in Dubai in early March and were scheduled to be back to Kottayam in Kerala by April 9.
“But by then, the lockdown was imposed both in the UAE and India. Initially, we were happy as lockdown meant we could stay for an extra two weeks at my sister’s place but gradually, things started changing… the lockdown was extended and air travel was suspended indefinitely,” Professor Joy said.
A few positive coronavirus cases emerged in the residential building where they were staying, prompting the 51-year-old mathematics professor to worry for his ageing mother.
“As the days went by, my worries for my mother kept growing. She has no age-related condition but there was always the fear of what if something happens to her.
“All I wanted was to bring her home safely, where she belongs,” said Professor Joy, who is still under home-quarantine.
For Krishna Das, a businessman in Abu Dhabi, the repatriation flight came a huge relief to bring back his grieving mother-in-law after she lost her husband suddenly to cardiac arrest.
Mr Sreekumar, 71, a retired college professor and Mrs Sreekumar, 70, were visiting their daughter Sreeja, 38, a teacher in Sharjah.
The couple from Kozhikode in Kerala were to travel back on April 12 but a night before, Mr Sreekumar suffered chest pains and died of a heart attack at a local hospital.
“My mother-in-law is devastated. The last few weeks were traumatising for us. Because of the lockdown, we couldn’t bring his body back home and had to cremate him in Sharjah.
“We will now observe the rituals here with other family members,” he said.
