Indian evacuees from Yemen return, face more problems

A harried group of 22 nurses and three children evacuated from strife-torn Yemen by the Indian embassy in Sanaa was in for more trouble when they landed at the city airport and have blamed officials of the mission and the customs department for their plight.

The hapless passengers, all hailing from Kerala, had landed in Mumbai at 4pm yesterday but they alleged today that the callous attitude of customs officials made them miss their scheduled 5.30pm Air India flight to Kochi.

Since the Indian embassy officials apparently did not intimate their late arrival to the external affairs ministry in New Delhi or to the Kerala House in Mumbai, the passengers, including three children aged 2-7, were forced to fend for themselves.

Jokose Panicker, development officer at Norka, which is the Kerala government department looking after the affairs of the non-resident Keralites, told PTI that he did not get any intimation from the embassy or from Air India.

"Ironically the embassy officials did not intimate us about their late arrival or to the ministry in Delhi. We have been waiting for their arrival for the past 18 days," Panicker said.

"I came to know about their plight from a Malayalam news channel late yesterday night and I immediately reached the airport and arranged for food and other basic facilities," Panicker said, adding, "There would not have been any problem had the embassy officials intimated us about their arrival."

While customs officials could not be contacted for their response, an Air India spokesperson said the airline was not aware of any such development. "I would enquire about it. As of now, I am not told of any such development. Normally we are very sensitive to the evacuees," the spokesperson said.

As the political violence escalated in Yemen, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had on June 2 said the situation in the Arab state was worrisome and that there was a need to evacuate Indians from there. Since then evacuation had started.

"We arrived on a Yemenese flight at 4pm yesterday and were supposed to take a 5.45pm Air India flight to Kochi. We begged the customs officials to help take us to the AI counter fast but they just did not care," Jiun John from Thodupuzha in Idudkki district said.

"Had the customs officials and Air India were more sensitive we could have managed to get back to our homes yesterday itself. They shuttled us between the international and domestic terminals like a foot fall and finally when we reached the AI counter, it was too late and AI refused our pleas to take us on board.

"It was only after the Norka official intervened, AI agreed to reissue tickets to us for today evening," Sherryn Baby hailing from Kerala's Idudkki district said.

"We had to spend the last night without food and water, as we could not afford the costly food from inside the airport. Also, the immigration authorities did not allow us to go out to fetch food. We were forced to sleep on the floor last night," Jinu alleged.

Though finally, Norka managed to fly six of these passengers this morning, there was more problem in store for them as the scheduled 6am Kingfisher flight got cancelled. Finally they were flown on a SpiceJet flight at 8.30am to Kochi, the official said, adding "the remaining 19 would be flown by a 5.30pm Air India flight to Kochi."