Hundreds of Indian travellers currently stranded in New Zealand amidst global travel restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic are pleading the Government of India for arranging repatriation flights back home.
Notably, the Indian government has first stopped all commercial international flights from March 23 for a week before subsequently extending the restrictions till April 15, leaving hundreds of travellers stranded in New Zealand.
Since then these travellers who had planned to visit on short term leisure trips only, have been burdened with arranging for their extended periods of accommodation and living costs while self-isolating themselves during the Alert Level 4 lockdown in New Zealand.
Image: High Commissioner of India in New Zealand Muktesh Pardeshi
Many such stranded temporary visitors have spoken with the Indian Weekender sharing their stories of frustration, uncertainty and desperation.
Sanjay Kumar Shroff was travelling with his wife Jyotsna Shroff and another couple Mr and Mrs Sunil Tellakula, originally from Bangalore to celebrate their silver jubilee marriage anniversary with a lifetime trip to Australia and New Zealand.
The group had first arrived in NZ at Queenstown on March 14 and were in Christchurch on March 20 when they first came to know that India was closing its borders and banning all flights to India.
“My daughter called me back from India on March 20 informing about the decision of the government of India and advising to reschedule our flights at the earliest,” Mr Shroff said.
“We lost our money with our original ticket back to India with Emirates airlines but managed to book another flight with Singapore Airlines scheduled to depart Auckland on March 22 and reach India just before the time allowed by the govt of India for incoming flights.”
“Our flight was supposed to travel from Auckland to Brisbane, Singapore and New Delhi.”
“However, when we reached the airport we were not allowed to board as by then Australia has also closed its borders and even not allowing any transit facility and only Australian citizens were allowed in that flight,”
“Since then, we have been living in a serviced apartment complex in Auckland and spending around $700 per week.”
Neerav and Bindiya Patel were on their honeymoon trip to New Zealand when they got stranded with global travel restrictions and India’s border closures. The couple is medical doctors by profession and employed in a government hospital in the Indian state of Gujarat.
Neerav and Bindiya who were on their honeymoon before getting stranded in NZ (Image: Supplied)
“We received cancellation notification for our originally scheduled flight on March 20, and immediately we booked ourselves to the next available flight on March 21 via Australia,” Neerav said.
“However, we were not allowed to board as by then Australia has closed its borders for any non-citizens.”
“We have lost our money twice for cancelled flights, around $8000, plus we are on leave without pay from work back in India,” an exasperated Neerav said.
Sangeeta and Hitesh Mehta from Mumbai were visiting their son who was supposed to finish his studies in March when they got stranded.
“We had arrived on March 1, and our return flight was March 29 by Thai airways, which was cancelled,” Mrs Mehta said.
“We had planned a quick short visit to see our son, and we stayed with him in his shared flat as we wanted to spend as much time as possible with him.”
“Now we are stuck in his one-room flat with limited financial resources as we cannot transfer much money online from India,” Mrs Mehta said.
The list and the stories of desperation are long and endless, with around 800-900 stranded Indian travellers eagerly waiting for any favourable news about any special flight to India.
They all told the Indian Weekender that they were desperate to return back home.
Indian High Commission is in touch with the stranded travellers
The office of the Indian High Commission in Wellington and the Consulate of India in Auckland had said that they are aware of the situation and constantly in touch with the stranded travellers and doing the needful to do the needful to help them.
The office of the High Commission is arranging for distribution of free grocery packs and prescription medicines for the standard travellers.
The High Commissioner of India, Muktesh Pardeshi said that his office is doing everything to support the stranded Indian travellers while advising them to strictly follow social distancing and self-isolation rules to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
“In view of the global pandemic, we are faced with an unprecedented situation, and the Govt of India had to take some drastic measures to contain the spread of COVID 19 virus.
“This led to first, closing of all international flights and then a nation-wide lockdown which is under implementation until April 14. We are aware there are about 1000 Indians who are stuck in NZ due to this flight ban.”
“I urge them to remain calm and patient and wait for further news from India. At this moment, what is important is that they are safe and healthy, wherever they are.
“We are engaged with stranded Indians and assisting them by the manner of providing help for basic groceries to needy ones, arranging medical prescriptions to those seeking to get medicines here and helping in visa extension cases.
“Several organizations have come forward to join in our collective efforts, and I would like to thank them for their services,” Mr Pardeshi said.
Stranded-travellers hope for more active-diplomacy from New Delhi
Meanwhile, many of the stranded travellers have told the Indian Weekender how they were keeping a close eye on some media reports from back home about the sorties by Air India - India’s national carrier - to overseas destinations in Europe as late as last week mainly to help foreign travellers caught-up in India and helping them in getting back home.
Air India operated four flights to London’s Heathrow airport last week (April 2- 7) from Delhi and Mumbai Airport. Similarly, two flights to Germany and Israel were also operated in the same week, deploying Boeing 777 which operated as ferry flights -- without any passengers -- on the way back home.
While appreciating such compassionate and diplomatic efforts by the Government of India, they were expecting similar active-diplomatic and compassionate activities from New Delhi towards those who are stranded in New Zealand.
They also pointed towards some intense diplomatic activity being initiated from New Delhi in support of opening up of otherwise closed commercial air routes in seemingly more lucrative destinations of Europe and North America.
However, they strongly felt that such promptness was missing in New Delhi’s concerns towards Indians stranded in this remote region of the South Pacific.
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