Pakistan has increased number of flights for evacuating its citizens from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after the Gulf state threatened to review its labour ties with countries refusing to take back nationals during the COVID-19 pandemic, reliable sources said.
More than 30,000 stranded Pakistanis including 20,000 jobless and visitors have registered with the Pakistani missions in the UAE seeking to return home. Spokesman of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) told Business Recorder that PIA had arranged 16 flights in the current week against requested 20 flights to bring back stranded Pakistanis from the UAE. He said that some special close flights for specific passengers were also under discussion.
These flights have been booked on the request of Pakistani embassy in the UAE.
He said that bringing back 30,000 stranded Pakistanis was a challenging subject because airline had to follow the SOPs of social distancing and book passengers accordingly.
Sources in Aviation Division said that it might take more than 40 days to complete the evacuation of stranded Pakistanis from the UAE.
An estimated 800 Pakistanis per day would be repatriated from various airports of the emirates through Pakistan's airlines as well as other international airlines.
Currently, there is only restriction on international flights to fly to Pakistan that it will not fly back Pakistanis without permission from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), however, international airlines can run repatriation flights.
More than 30,000 stranded Pakistanis including 20,000 jobless and visitors have registered with the Pakistani embassy in the UAE seeking to return home
In a series of tweets, Pakistani citizens stranded in Dubai have slammed the federal government for not making any arrangements to bring them back.
People are complaining to the Pakistani embassy in Dubai for selling tickets at the elevated price of 2,000 UAE Dirham).
The PIA spokesman said that the PIA was only charging its operational cost excluding salaries of crew.
Since it is a one-way flight operation, tickets are expensive per person.
In normal circumstances, this is the price of a two-way ticket, he added.
He further said that federal government instructed the airline, special care should be given to the jobless in the UAE.
Repatriation of stranded Pakistanis started on April 18 with the PIA flight carrying the first batch of 227 passengers from Dubai to Islamabad.
Around 6,000 stranded Pakistanis are expected to fly back in the current week according to the flight schedule on the website of Covid19.gov.pk.
On April 20, two flights landed in Karachi and Lahore; however the status of other two flights remained TBD (to be discussed).
Five more flights have been scheduled to land in Pakistan on April 24, however, status of two flights is tentative or TBD.
Five more flights are scheduled to arrive on April 28, but two flights status is not finalised.
People registered with the consulate or the embassy are calling according to the priority set by the government.
Priority is given to those who lost jobs and those who came on visit visas but were stranded, and also those who have genuine emergency situation.
On Sunday, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Security Moeed Yusuf said that the government was doing its utmost to bring back Pakistanis from abroad.
"This week, we will be able to bring back 6,000 Pakistanis from abroad, and in the coming week, an estimated 7,000 people," he added.
People from abroad will be kept in isolation for at lest two days.
Those who are tested negative for COVID-19 will be allowed to go home with condition of self-quarantine for at least 14 days.
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