COVID-19: Kuwait approves repatriation flights to India amid travel ban

Dubai, August 6

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Kuwait has approved India’s request to run repatriation flights for citizens wishing to return home, even as the Gulf nation has imposed an indefinite travel ban on 31 “high-risk” coronavirus countries, including India, according to a media report on Thursday.

Kuwait’s Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will operate the repatriation flights from August 10 to October 24, the Gulf News reported, citing Kuwaiti newspaper Al Qabas.

The burden of flights will be shared equally between Indian and Kuwaiti airlines and each day about 1,000 Indians will leave Kuwait City, the report said.

Kuwait has a population of 4.8 million with foreigners accounting for 3.4 million. There are about one million Indian expatriates in Kuwait.

“The arrangements proposed by the Indian side are limited to departure only and do not include their return to Kuwait,” an official was quoted as saying in the report.

Earlier in the week, Kuwait suspended flights from 31 “high-risk” countries. The list included India, Pakistan, Egypt, and the Philippines—all of whom have sizeable communities in Kuwait, the Gulf News reported.

The coronavirus has so far claimed 469 lives with 70,045 confirmed infections in Kuwait, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre. PTI