As per reports last week, India's External Affairs Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and his deputy V Muraleedharan held meetings with Indian envoys in six GCC countries, including the United Arab Emirates, where resumption of flights was top of the agenda.
The UAE has suspended flights from India from April 24 following the second and deadly wave of the covid-19 outbreak. In a similar move, on May 13, it also suspended entry for travellers from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, who along with Indians make up 70 per cent of the country's workforce.
Foreign Ministry officials said there have been persistent efforts over the past few weeks to impress upon the respective governments in the GCC countries the need to resume flights.
However, many of these countries are worried because of the mutant delta variant, the tremors of which are being felt across the world including India.
The data showed that an estimated nine million Indian expatriates are working in the Middle East, including over 3.4 million in the United Arab Emirates alone. Hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been stuck in their countries of origin since the travel ban came into force.
Officials said the Modi administration is following a wait-and-see policy, while trying to impress upon its counterparts in the GCC the importance of resuming flights from India, given that many of its citizens The job may be on the line. Due to his long absence from the workplace.
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