New Delhi: Amid the coronavirus pandemic lockdown, more than 5.80 lakh Indian nationals stranded overs have been repatriated under Vande Bharat Mission.
Currently, the mission is underway in its fourth phase.
“As on July 8 against a total number of 6,61,352 persons, who registered their request with our Missions abroad for repatriation to India, over 5,80,000 have returned under this mission,” foreign ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said during virtual weekly press briefing here.
More than 97,000 of them have returned through land border immigration checkpoints from Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
Under fourth phase, a total of 637 international flights have already been scheduled.
“These flights would service 29 airports in India. Details of these flights are available on our website,” he said.
The demand of stranded Indians to return is now mainly from the GCC countries, Malaysia and Singapore. “Our Missions are proactively working out modalities in repatriating our citizens from remote areas,” he added.
In this regard, “we have scheduled flights from Amsterdam to bring passengers from Latin American countries, as well as flights out of Lagos, Nairobi and South Africa to meet requirements from Africa,” the spokesperson said.
