For the next 15 days, Indian expats can return to their host country in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Indians stranded in the UAE can also return home. Indeed, the two countries reached an agreement to exceptionally open their borders to each other and allow citizens and residents to travel under certain circumstances. The said period began on the 12th of July and will end in two weeks, on July 26th.
According to Gulf News, it is estimated that several thousands of Indian expats, stranded in their home country, will be able to return to the UAE to return to work over the next two weeks. Arrangements were made between the two parties' Civil Aviation departments to provide for flights to and from several cities and destinations in the two countries.
Only UAE citizens and expats who have valid residence permits for the UAE will be allowed onto the flights and only Indian citizens will be allowed back into India. “As part of the close strategic partnership between the governments of India and the UAE and with a view to assisting UAE resident nationals who are presently in India to return to the UAE, the Civil Aviation authorities of both countries have agreed to operationalise the following arrangement from July 12, 2020. Charter flights operated by the UAE carriers to bring Indian citizens from the UAE to India will be allowed to carry ICA-approved UAE residents (returning to the UAE from India) on their return leg (India to the UAE)”, said the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation in a tweet.
Passengers will be required to submit their COVID-19 results within 96 hours before the flight. Only results from certain accredited labs will be accepted.
Flights have already been arranged to and from several emirates and cities in the UAE and in India. Air India, Air Arabia, Etihad, Emirates and even low-cost airlines will be operating a series of repatriation flights over the next two weeks.
