Tunisia evacuates Indian citizens on military plane gratis

K V Prasad

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 25

As the focus remains on repatriation of Indian citizens stranded overseas, a gesture by Tunisia facilitated the evacuation of 25 people from the African country to New Delhi quietly on a military transport aircraft and that too gratis.

The group of 25 Indians were flown to New Delhi on a special military aircraft that landed at the Indian Gandhi International Airport on Saturday. These included residents of Maharastra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand and other states.

The plane was on its way to pick up Tunisian citizens stranded in India, Vietnam and Thailand, and as a special gesture, the authorities transported the Indian citizens, some of whom work with the TIFRET — the India-Tunisia joint venture phosphate project.

The plane carried back 16 Tunisian citizens, Ambassador Nejmeddine Lakhal told The Tribune on Monday.

Praising the collaborative effort by the Ministry of External Affairs Joint Secretary (WANA), Nikhilesh Giri, the Ambassador described the move as a sign of a “very solid friendship between Tunisia and India” that goes back many decades.

“Solidarity between our countries has always been at the top. Helping each other and in particular in the difficult time, as it happened during the evacuation of Indian citizens from Libya, is a very normal situation for us. I am extremely happy that our Indian friends could make it back to their homeland,” said Ambassador Nejmeddine Lakhal.