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| COVID-19 |
The Indians stranded in Kuala Lampur are majority students who were on their way back from the Philippines after President Rodrigo Duterte told all foreigners that they can go back to their countries in the next 72 hours. The Philippines has reported at least 140 positive cases of deadly Covid-19.
India Today TV spoke to one such student Jaskirat Singh Bakshi, who is an MBBS student in the Philippines and was his way back home.
Jaskirat said that he had boarded the 6 am flight from the Philippines and was transitioning via Malaysia when the Centre made the announcement to cancel all flights from Malaysia.
"As soon as we realised what has happened, we tried to get in touch with the Indian High Commission in Malaysia, but they did not respond or take any of our calls," Jaskirat told India Today TV.
According to Jaskirat, several people who were either in transition or trying to get back home from Malayasia took to Twitter and urged the Ministry of External Affairs to help, but none of them has received any response so far.
The airline helpdesks were also of no use. Jaskirat, who was supposed to board a 10.40 pm Air Asia flight from Kuala Lumpur, said that the airlines did not have any clue about the flight status.
"India staff said that the flight was on schedule, the staff here told us that they are ready to fly but Indian government won't let them land," Jaskirat said via video call from Kuala Lumpur airport.
On being asked about the arrangements made by the airlines or airport staff for them due to the cancellations, Jaskirat said that "at this point, everyone is fending for themselves".
For now, the 250 Indians continue to be stuck at the Kuala Lumpur airport with no additional info.
"We cannot go back to the Philippines, we can't stay in Malaysia and we can't travel to India, we are stuck," Jaskirat said.
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