Indian Government Prioritizes Poor Workers In Evacuation Plan, According To PM Narendra Modi

Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declared the rule of the plan to evacuate Indian workers stuck abroad. The foreign and civil aviation ministries are prepping to welcome thousands of blue-collar laborers. These people will be prioritized for the initial seats in the typical flights to come back home when India is still in the lockdown.

After that, students stuck in other countries will get the right and the next ones will be everyone who traveled or on a business trip. A senior official of the government said:

"The prime minister was very clear... That the Indian expatriate workforce should get the first choice to return."

Due to the harsh attack of the coronavirus outbreak over the world, many Indian workers stationing in West Asia have been unemployed. However, as the states didn't own full accommodation for numerous workers, PM Modi and Foreign Minister S Jaishankar contacted the Gulf countries to care for the Indians there.

About 12.6 million nationals work abroad and those working in 6 Gulf countries cover 70 percent. 3.4 million Indians are working in the United Arab Emirates while Saudi Arabia is home to 2.6 million people. The remaining Gulf countries including Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar are reported to have 2.9 million NRIs.

Besides, several requests were sent to Indian missions from students stranded in many different countries in the world such as the UK, Russia, Philippines, Canada, Singapore, and the US. In Russia particularly, there are about 15,000 Indian students staying there.

An official of the government stated:

"It will be a complicated exercise. Indian missions abroad will compile a list of people who want to return to India, prioritize them and then coordinate with the states concerned. When they eventually land in India, everyone would have to be screened to figure if the person should be sent to a quarantine centre or straight to the hospital."

Following him, the mammoth exercise requires a dedicated control room from the foreign ministry. The Center hasn't made an official decision of when and how to evacuate the workers. Meanwhile, Kerala announced their preparation of accommodation and quarantine centers for 2 lakh ex-pats at least, the majority for Indian workers.