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1200 Indians Brought Back From Israel: MEA

By LokMarg 19th October 2023

Around 1200 Indian nationals including 18 Nepali nationals have been brought back from Israel under ‘Operation Ajay‘ and more flights will be planned as per the requirements, the Ministry of External Affairs informed on Thursday.

MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi also said that the government is assessing the situation in Israel amid the ongoing war with Hamas.

Addressing a press briefing, Bagchi said, “1200 Indians have come back in five flights under operation Ajay, including 18 Nepali nationals…We are assessing the situation and as per the requirements we will plan further flights”.

He refuted any reports of Indian casualty in Gaza and said that one national is injured in the attacks.

“I thankfully have not received any report of any casualty…one Indian national had been injured and is receiving medical care and I understand her condition is now stable,” he said.

The MEA spokesperson further said that around four Indian nationals are in Gaza while 12-13 nationals are in West Bank.

“There are around four Indian nationals in Gaza…we don’t have exact numbers and are coordinating. There are 12-13 Indian nationals in the West Bank…It’s a little tough to get out from Gaza. There are some reports that some have already got out of there, but we will wait for confirmation,” he said.

Bagchi further informed that no advisory has been issued by the MEA for Lebanon as of now.

“We haven’t issued any advisory for Lebanon as of now. We are monitoring the situation and will issue it accordingly if the need arises,” he said.

Operation Ajay is an ongoing operation conducted by the Indian Armed Forces to evacuate Indian citizens from Israel during the 2023 Israel-Hamas war. It was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring back around 18,000 Indians in Israel.

Earlier on Tuesday night, the fifth flight carrying 286 Indian nationals including 18 citizens of Nepal arrived in New Delhi. Upon arrival, they were received by the Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting and Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, L Murugan.

The Indian nationals have applauded the operation and said that there was support from the Indian embassy and the evacuation process was nice and quick.

Following the Hamas attack on Israel, the Indian embassy issued an advisory and requested the Indian citizens living in Israel to be cautious and to register their names in the Indian embassy.

The MEA had set up a 24-hour control room in view of the escalating conflict. The control room will help monitor the situation and provide information and assistance. (ANI)

Fourth flight From Israel Carrying 274 Indians Lands In Delhi

By LokMarg 15th October 2023

The fourth flight from Israel under ‘Operation Ajay’ carrying 274 Indian passengers landed in the national capital on Sunday.

Union Minister of State General (Retd) VK Singh received the Indian passengers at the airport. He interacted with them and also gave tricolours to every Indian passenger.

MoS for Road Transport and Highways, VK Singh informed that more flights will be carried out to evacuate the Indian citizens amid the situation in Israel.

“This is the 4th flight, we are expecting more for a couple of reasons. One is the fear that something might hit them. After having been taken by surprise, Israel also gathered its things in a more orderly manner. However, the universities being closed, a general atmosphere of fear and preparation that is going on in Israel, our people fear that they should not unnecessarily become burden out there and come back home. And go back when things pan out in a better manner,” Singh told ANI.

He further urged people not to panic and follow the instructions, adding that another flight will be coming on Monday.

“There is another flight coming in tomorrow. We will keep running the flights till all the people who have registered are taken out. This operation is going very well. It is seamless, well organised… My message would be to stay where you are and follow the instructions. There is no need to panic,” he added.

The Indian passengers said that the situation in Israel remains tense and thanked the Modi government for carrying out ‘Operation Ajay’ and evacuating the Indian citizens.

An Indian student coming from Israel told ANI, “In the beginning it was horrific. Everything was uncontrollable. But now the situation is under control. The government and military are taking very strict action…Thank you, it was the best initiative (Operation Ajay) taken by the government of India…”

“In Tel Aviv the situation is normal. But in the south and north Israel, there are chances of war. That’s why we returned…The government did a very good job. They responded very fast within 2-3 days,” another Indian national named Sumit said.

The Indian nationals applauded the operation and said that there was support from the Indian embassy and the evacuation process was nice and quick.

Priya Gupta, an Indian national said, “I was in Tel Aviv University for the past two years… There was support from the Indian embassy as well… I feel thankful to the Indian government for making this arrangement. It was really quick.”

“We were in Tel Aviv and that area is very safe. Initially, for the first two days, we were afraid, but the fear was more in the border area. There was no problem in Tel Aviv, but there was little panic. There was uncertainty about what would happen?… The evacuation process was very nice and quick. We applied for it a day before yesterday and got the flight yesterday,” another Indian national Dipender Pawari said.

Meanwhile, ten citizens of Uttarakhand were also among the 274 Indian passengers who arrived in Delhi.

They were received at the airport by the representative of Uttarakhand Government and after rest and refreshments at Uttarakhand Sadan, Delhi, necessary arrangements were made for their destination.

A senior lady named Pushpa Singh said, “I am from Uttarakhand. I had gone to Israel to meet my daughter, but got stranded after the bombing started. I contacted the Embassy and they provided all the necessary help and arrangements. I thank the Indian government for this”.

‘Operation Ajay’ was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring back around 18,000 Indians in Israel. Registration of Indians began on Thursday.

It has been more than a week after the attack that saw more than 1,300 Israelis killed, most of them civilians, as waves of Hamas terrorists breached the border. Over 1,000 Palestinians were also killed as a result of retaliatory strikes from Israel.

The Indian embassy in Israel is providing assistance to Indian companies and has set up a helpline for Indian citizens in need of assistance.

The MEA had set up a 24-hour control room in view of the escalating conflict. The control room will help monitor the situation and provide information and assistance. (ANI)

Safe Evacuation Of Indians From Sudan Days After PMO Meet

By LokMarg 23rd April 2023

Some Indian nationals were evacuated among 66 citizens from 12 nations from the conflict-hit Sudan to Saudi Arabia.

The evacuation came days after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke to his Saudi Arabia counterpart and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday chaired a high-level meeting to review the security situation in Sudan.
Saudi Arabia ministry, in a statement, announced the “safe arrival” of 91 Saudi citizens and around 66 nationals representing the following nationalities Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Tunisia, Pakistan, India, Bulgaria, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Canada, and Burkina. Faso.

Sudan is facing violence due to fighting between the army and the paramilitary forces. There are reports of violence even amid a 72-hour ceasefire.

The statement read, “In the implementation of the directives of the Kingdoms Leadership, we are pleased to announce the safe arrival of the citizens of the Kingdom who were evacuated from the Republic of Sudan as well as several nationals of brotherly and friendly countries, including diplomats and international officials, who arrived in an evacuation operation carried out by the Royal Saudi Naval Forces with the support of various branches of the armed forces.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting to review the security situation in Sudan via video-conferencing on Friday.

During the meeting, Prime Minister Modi assessed the most recent developments in Sudan and received a first-hand report of the conditions on the ground, with a specific focus on the safety of over 3,000 Indian citizens presently located throughout the country.

The Prime Minister expressed his condolences on the passing away of an Indian national who tragically fell victim to a stray bullet last week.

Prime Minister Modi instructed all relevant officials to remain vigilant, closely monitoring developments and continuously evaluating the safety of Indian nationals in Sudan and extending them all possible assistance. The Prime Minister further directed the preparation of contingency evacuation plans, accounting for the rapidly shifting security landscape and the viability of various options.

The Prime Minister also emphasized the importance of maintaining close communication with neighbouring countries in the region, as well as those with significant numbers of citizens in Sudan.

Earlier, Jaishankar had a meeting on April 20 met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York and discussed the developments in Sudan.

“We had a very good meeting. Most of our meeting was on the Sudan situation. We also discussed the G20, and Ukraine conflict, but essentially it was about Sudan,” Jaishankar told ANI.

Jaishankar said that the Indian government is in continuous touch with its citizens stuck in Sudan.

“Our team in Delhi is in continuous touch with the Indians in Sudan, advising them, saying we know it’s very difficult for everybody but keep calm and don’t take unnecessary risk. I hope that the efforts will yield something very soon,” the EAM said.

Fighting has been raging between forces loyal to Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The conflict began since a coup in 2021 between Sudan’s military leader and his deputy on the ruling council erupted derailing a plan for a transition to a civilian democracy after the fall of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019. Elections were supposed to be held by the end of 2023. (ANI)

Over 8,000 Indians Lodged In Foreign Jails: MEA

By LokMarg 9th December 2022

Over 8,000 Indians are currently imprisoned in foreign jails and out of these 4,389 are lodged in Gulf countries, Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said on Friday.

“As per the information available with the Ministry, the number of Indian prisoners, including under-trials, in foreign jails at present is 8441, out of which 4,389 are lodged in jails of Gulf countries (United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman),” MoS Muraleedharan said in response to a question in Lok Sabha.
While responding to a query on whether the inmates lodged in UAE jails can serve the rest of their sentence in Indian jails, MoS said that under the Agreement on Transfer of Sentenced Persons (TSP), which was signed on November 23, 2011, Indian nationals lodged in UAE prisons can be transferred to India to serve the remainder of their sentence and vice-versa.

“The transfer of a sentenced person to his country of nationality under the TSP Agreement is dependent on completion of various formalities such as prisoner’s willingness to be transferred, consent of the transferring and receiving country, availability of complete documentation necessary for processing the request, clearance from appropriate agencies, etc. Requests for requisite documents for processing the transfer of sentenced persons have been sent to the UAE side,” he added.

This comes after the case of eight former naval officers who were detained in Doha again came into the spotlight.

On December 1, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that India is regularly responding to the case of ex-Indian Navy officers arrested in Qatar as the embassy is actively pursuing the issue.

He said that the detained Indians are in touch with family members in India.

“We’ve been responding to this regularly. Our embassy is actively pursuing the case. We understand that detained Indians are able to speak to their families in India over the telephone now, some of them have families staying in Doha,” MEA spokesperson said.

The MEA spokesperson further added that some detainees have families in Doha and are being allowed to have physical meetings on a weekly basis.

“Those families are being allowed to have physical meetings, at least on a weekly basis. We will continue to extend all possible consular assistance and seek further consular access to these people. As soon as we have some more updates, we’ll bring that to you,” Bagchi said. (ANI)

Sunak Greenlights 3,000 UK Visas For Indians Hrs After Meeting Modi

By LokMarg 16th November 2022

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has given the go-ahead for 3,000 visas for young professionals from India to work in the UK each year.

The British government said India is the first visa-national country to benefit from such a scheme, highlighting the strength of the UK-India Migration and Mobility Partnership agreed upon last year.
“Today the UK-India Young Professionals Scheme was confirmed, offering 3,000 places to 18-30-year-old degree-educated Indian nationals to come to the UK to live and work for up to two years,” the UK Prime Minister’s Office said in a tweet.

This announcement in the Downing Street readout came hours after Sunak met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the 17th edition of the G20 Summit. This was their first meeting after the first Indian-origin British PM assumed office last month.

“Prime Ministers @narendramodi and @RishiSunak in conversation during the first day of the @g20org Summit in Bali,” PM Modi’s Office said in a tweet.

Under the new UK-India Young Professionals Scheme, the UK will offer 3,000 places annually to 18-30-year-old degree-educated Indian nationals to come to the UK to live and work in the UK for up to two years. The scheme will be reciprocal.

“The launch of the scheme is a significant moment both for our bilateral relationship with India and the UK’s wider commitment to forging stronger links with the Indo-Pacific region to strengthen both our economies,” Downing Street said in a statement.

It said the UK has more links with India than almost any country in the Indo-Pacific region. Nearly a quarter of all international students in the UK are from India, and Indian investment in the UK supports 95,000 jobs across the UK.

The UK is currently negotiating a trade deal with India – if agreed it will be the first deal of its kind India has made with a European country. The trade deal would build on the UK-India trading relationship, already worth 24 billion pounds, and allow the UK to seize the opportunities presented by India’s growing economy.

In parallel to the mobility partnership with India, the British government said it is also strengthening its ability to remove immigration offenders.

“A landmark Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the UK and India in May 2021 aimed at increasing mobility between our countries, returning those with no right to be in the UK and India respectively and sharing best practices on organized immigration crime,” the UK PMO added. (ANI)