India holds high-level talks with Gulf officials over lifting travel ban

Indian external affairs minister hopeful that 'vastly improved' situation will allow for family reunions and normal travel

Gulf states were among many countries that imposed flight restrictions on India when Covid-19 cases there surged in April.

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Senior Indian officials have met with their Gulf counterparts to discuss lifting coronavirus restrictions on flights from India to the region.

V Muraleedharan, Minister of State for External Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs, who deals with the Gulf and the rest of the Arab world, held a meeting with Indian ambassadors in the Gulf to discuss moves towards the resumption of passenger flights.

UAE state news agency Wam reported on developments on Saturday.

The Gulf is home to about 8.5 million Indian residents, with the largest population, about 3.4 million, living in the UAE.

The UAE has restricted passengers from India since April, when a third wave of Covid-19 swept through Indian cities and the highly contagious Delta coronavirus variant emerged. As many as 300,000 to 400,000 new daily cases were reported at one stage.

That has since fallen to about 40,000 new cases a day, with millions of people now tested daily.

“Our ambassadors were requested at that meeting to take up with their host countries the issue of resumption of flights with India,” Arindam Bagchi, a representative of the Ministry of External Affairs, said.

“We hope that with the vastly improved Covid-19 situation in India, countries would ease restrictions on travel from India.”

Mr Bagchi said Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s Minister for External Affairs, raised this issue during a bilateral meeting with high-ranking Saudi officials on the margins of the recent G20 ministerial meeting in Italy.

He said Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla raised the issue of normalisation of travel and mobility for students and professionals, as well as to enable family reunions.

“We are actively trying to help Indians who need to travel back to various countries across the world,” Mr Bagchi said.

Passengers from India are banned from travelling to the UAE, with a handful of exemptions that include golden visa holders and diplomatic personnel. They must quarantine for 10 days on arrival.

UAE officials and airlines said travel restrictions for a range of countries, including India, are due to be reviewed, with a July 15 deadline set.

However, restrictions could be extended, as has been the case at every review since late April.

Mr Bagchi said tackling the pandemic and lifting travel bans were the top priorities of the Indian government.

“We have seen some initial steps in this regard,” he said in an earlier briefing.

“The government will continue to prioritise this issue.”

Airlines sell India flight tickets - but agents warn ban not lifted yet

At the weekend, several airlines' websites began selling tickets for July 16, a day after the deadline for the July 15 review - but agents warned no decision had been taken yet by the UAE authorities.

Flights from Thursday, July 15, onwards are available on Indian airlines Vistara, and from Friday, July 16, with Emirates and flydubai.

Although inbound flights from Pakistan were not listed on airline websites, Emirates was showing flights from Sri Lanka available from July 16, while flydubai was offering them from July 27.

Dinesh Uttwani, a travel agent at Musafir.com, said passengers can now make bookings — but cannot guarantee that restrictions will be lifted.

“The opening of bookings does not mean that the ban will be removed by then,” he said.

“People can make the bookings if they wish, but it will only be guaranteed once authorities announce officially that the ban has been removed.”