India has so far brought back almost 24,000 of its nationals since it started a mission on 7 May to repatriate Indians stranded abroad due to the covid-19 pandemic, an official said Thursday.
In the second phase of a mammoth repatriation exercise codenamed “Vande Bharat” that started on 16 May, India expects to bring back its nationals from 47 countries on 162 flights, foreign ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava told reporters.
“We have moved into the second phase of this mission from 16th May onwards. This phase will last till 13th June,” he said adding: “In this phase, we are including places like Istanbul, Ho Chi Minh city, Lagos, etc and increasing flights to the US and Europe. We are also looking at developing Frankfurt as a hub.”
