India-UAE travel: Expats anxious to board first flight back

Dubai - New rules stipulate that only vaccinated residents will be allowed to return to the UAE.

Many residents stuck in India have been longing for their families for months now. With travel suspended until further notice following a lethal Covid wave that swept India, expats have no choice but to wait — and hope that, soon, they’ll be back in their second home.

Stranded twice in Covid time

UAE resident Shradha Salla — a reputed numerologist, tarot card reader and Vastu practitioner — has not seen her husband, a Dubai-based entrepreneur, since November. Shradha has been living in Mumbai, with her two daughters, Aarna, 16, and Sunehra, 14.

It wasn’t the first time Salla and her family had been stranded, though.

“We faced a similar situation last year, when the Covid-19 pandemic first struck, and we were planning to make Dubai our second home since my husband runs a business in the emirate,” Salla told Khaleej Times.

“In retrospect, it appears that we’ve become victims of the popular saying that history repeats itself. Last year, we’re stuck in Dubai and this time around, we’re back to square one on the other side of the Arabian Sea in Mumbai,” she added.

Salla had taken the lead last year in helping several UAE expats fly home to India after the travel ban was lifted.

She has been receiving at least 10 calls a day from UAE residents, who are not reaching out for tarot card reading but soliciting help and expressing their anxiety about when they could return to the Emirates.

A father in need of surgery

Dubai residents Jabeen and her sister Naureen are worried, owing to the prolonged flight suspension.

Their father, a Dubai resident for the past 17 years, resigned from his job and flew back to India to see his ailing mother in Pune. He has a few days left before his UAE resident visa expires, and he is also not keeping well.

Jabeen, who is married and settled in Dubai, explained her father’s plight: “I lost my mother a few years ago and my father lived all alone in Dubai. He went back to Pune to be with his ailing mother before the travel ban was enforced. We’re feeling helpless as his residence visa expires in a few days.

“He suffers from an auto-immune disorder, myasthenia gravis. Our troubles compounded, as he recently dislocated his spinal disc and needs a surgical procedure, which has to wait till the flight operations resume. His travails have exacerbated, as he has no help at hand back home.”

joydeep@khaleejtimes.com