Lockdown: Air India to operate 5 flights from Canada to fly back stranded Indians

When a young Indian tourist arrived in Canada on March 7, among the objectives of the planned 12-day vacation was to fulfil a dream of visiting the Niagara Falls. Instead, nearly two months after she was originally scheduled to return to India, 32-year-old Smitha B from Bangalore remains stranded in the Greater Toronto Area.

Now staying at a hotel in Brampton courtesy the community organization Canada India Foundation (CIF), next door to a family of four in a similar quandary, Smitha said, “My dream place was Niagara, but I didn’t get to go anywhere. People like me ended up like this.” That is, stuck in Canada, as her return flight to India on March 19 was cancelled and she has struggled to survive in a foreign country and has been relying on the meals and the free hotel room provided by the CIF.