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Air Asia flight takes off with 113 Indians stranded in Kuala Lumpur
Though close to 300 Indian nationals are currently believed to be at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, only those who had already cleared immigration will be brought back in the special flight, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity.
A total of 113 Indians stranded at the airport at Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia are returning to the country on Monday in a special Air Asia flight that will take back some Malaysian nationals, people familiar with developments said.
Though close to 300 Indian nationals are currently believed to be at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, only those who had already cleared immigration are being brought back in the special flight that took off at 9.20 pm Malaysian time, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity.
The others who are at the airport but hadn’t cleared immigration are being convinced to go to hostels, hotels and other facilities by officials from the Indian high commission, the people said.
“The Air Asia flight coming to India with 113 Indians will also take back some Malaysian citizens stranded in New Delhi,” a person said.
On March 17, the Indian government had approved two special Air Asia flights to New Delhi and Visakhapatnam to evacuate a total of 405 Indians.
The people said another flight is expected to bring back more Indians from Iran this week. Only those Indians who had been screened and tested negative for the Coronavirus will be allowed on to this flight, they said.
Hundreds of Indians were stranded at Kuala Lumpur after the government barred the entry of all passengers from 32 European countries, Turkey, Afghanistan, the Philippines and Malaysia till March 31.
On March 21, hundreds of the Indians stranded at the airport in Kuala Lumpur were taken to hotels, hostels and other “safe locations”, the Indian high commission had tweeted. In a separate tweet on Sunday, it had said that officials from the mission were providing food and medicines day and night to the Indians who remained at the airport.
The people cited above said several countries, including France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Israel, had sought special arrangements for flights to evacuate their nationals from India. “Many of these flights are likely to be arranged this week,” a second person said.
Malaysia’s foreign ministry said on March 19 that 1,075 Malaysian citizens were stranded in India. The figures for the nationals of the other countries couldn’t immediately be ascertained.
