From alien to homeland, the journey began for about 400 foreign nationals on Monday. Left high and dry in Punjab after the curfew was clamped across the State amidst corona scare on March 23, the foreign nationals, including students, are now safely heading back to their homes.
A week after over 303 US and Canadian nationals evacuated from Punjab, a special chartered flight flew back 271 Britons on Monday besides a special flight from Bhutan evacuating as many as 134 Bhutanese students of which maximum were stranded at a hostel of LPU, Phagwara, where a positive case was reported.
The Jammu&Kashmir Administration has also agreed to take back 1,400 stranded Kashmiri migrants, who had been put up in the relief camps at Pathankot. Pathankot District Administration is now awaiting the final go ahead from Kathua Deputy Commissioner to send them back at Lakhanpur barrier.
“This will also open the way for the return of Kashmiri students stranded in Amritsar, who have already completed their quarantine period,” said the Special Chief Secretary Karan Bir Singh Sidhu, who is also handling Punjab Disaster Management (Covid-19). He added that Jammu and Kashmir being a UT now, “they are getting all their permissions from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)”. A special plane from Bhutan flew back as many as 134 Bhutanese students studying in various educational institutions in Punjab, after thoroughly examining them by a team of the Health Department.
“134 Bhutanese students, who had been stranded in the hostels of Lovely Professional University, Phagwara-Jalandhar, were allowed them to leave for Bhutan through a special flight arranged by Bhutanese Government,” said the Special Chief Secretary Karan Bir Singh Sidhu.
Of the total, 122 students are studying at Lovely Professional University. Sidhu said that these students were stranded in the university hostels ever since the start of lockdown in the State.
Meanwhile, a special international non-scheduled rescue flight by the British Airways took off from Amritsar International Airport on Monday afternoon carrying 271 British Nationals.
“British High Commission’s special chartered flight is taking-off from Amritsar International Airport today at 2:30 pm, carrying 271 passengers. They are all British Nationals,” said Sidhu.