The Centre on Friday informed the Kerala High Court that there was no immediate plan to bring back the Indian citizens stranded in the Gulf countries due to the novel coronavirus outbreak and that the expatriates had been granted visa extension.
The counsel for the central government made the submission before a division bench comprising justices Raja Vijayaraghavan and T R Ravi during the hearing of a plea seeking a direction to bring back Indians stranded in the UAE.
Permission of the Gulf countries was required to send medical teams there to carry out medical examination of the stranded Indians, the counsel said, when the court sought to know the Centre's view on Kerala government sending medical teams to the Gulf countries to deal with the issue of COVID-19 disease among Malayalees there.
The court posted the plea to April 21 for consideration after the Central government informed that a similar petition is under consideration of the Supreme Court.
In its plea, Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre (KMCC) in Dubai, the organisation for non-resident Indians from Kerala, sought directions to the Ministries of External Affairs and Civil Aviation to provide exemptions in the international air travel ban to bring back Indians stranded in the UAE.
The petitioners noted that those who return could be kept in quarantine as per the protocol of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The state government has raised the issue of expatriates in UAE to the Centre on multiple occasions. In the video conference of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chief Ministers of the states, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan had asked the Centre to look into the possibility of bringing back expatriates.
Earlier this month, Pinarayi had also written a letter to Prime Minister Modi due to complaints from Keralites in UAE that there is an inadequacy of safe facilities for those living in labour camps and also in quarantine.
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