A total of 4,355 Indians died due to Covid-19 in 88 countries around the world, with the highest number of deaths being recorded in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
According to information provided by minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on Thursday, a total of 127 bodies were brought back to India for the last rites.
A total of 1,237 deaths due to Covid-19 were recorded in Saudi Arabia, while 894 deaths were reported in the UAE. More than six million Indians live in these two West Asian countries.
Other countries that reported a significant number of deaths were Bahrain (203), Kuwait (668), Malaysia (186), Oman (555) and Qatar (113), according to the information furnished by the minister.
Financial assistance for transporting the bodies to India or for local burial was provided from the Indian Community Welfare Fund whenever such requests were received by India’s foreign missions, Muraleedharan said.
There is no restriction on bringing back the bodies of Indians who died of Covid-19 provided the precautions mandated by the health and civil aviation ministries are taken, he added.
{{/usCountry}}There is no restriction on bringing back the bodies of Indians who died of Covid-19 provided the precautions mandated by the health and civil aviation ministries are taken, he added.
{{/usCountry}}In response to another question in Rajya Sabha, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said in a written reply that 716,662 Indians had returned from six West Asian countries on special repatriation flights amid the pandemic. The exact numbers were 330,058 from the UAE, 137,900 from Saudi Arabia, 97,802 from Kuwait, 72,259 from Oman, 51,190 from Qatar, and 27,453 from Bahrain.
“While a large number of Indian workers in the Gulf returned to India as a result of the impact of Covid-19, the economic recovery in that region and their increasing openness to travel from India has now seen a return by many of them,” Jaishankar said.
“It was the government’s priority to ensure during the pandemic that its impact on Indian workers, in terms of loss of employment, was mitigated. To that end, the ministry and all our missions in the Gulf were continuously engaged with the governments of the Gulf nations to maintain the workers, ensure their welfare and facilitate financial payments due to them,” he added.
The government launched a programme in January 2021 to up-skill Indian blue collar workers in the UAE to enhance their employability and wages. As the pandemic has receded in recent months, the focus has shifted to pressing for the return of workers and families on an expeditious basis, Jaishankar said.
“To that end, all Gulf nations were pressed to establish air bubbles and ease visa, travel and health restrictions. All countries in the Gulf have responded favourably to these efforts by the government as a result of which, there has been a steady flow of returnees back to the Gulf countries,” he said.
During the pandemic, India’s missions facilitated the return of Indian workers stranded abroad and extended support by using the Indian Community Welfare Fund and coordinating with community associations. This included expenses for board and lodging, air passage, and emergency medical care.