Odisha Samaj UAE Charters A Flight To Send Odias Home

Odisha Samaj UAE Charters A Flight To Send Odias Home

The Odia community in the UAE has come forward to help people of Odisha stuck in the country to get back to their homeland. The group members of Odisha Samaj UAE have arranged a special charter flight of Indigo which is expected to take off with 210 passengers from Dubai International Airport to Bhubaneswar on June 18. The expected time of take-off and landing are 10.55 am and 4.15 pm respectively.

As the president of Odia Samaj, UAE Amiya Kumar Mishra puts it, their phones didn’t stop ringing after they had arranged two flights from Dubai to Bhubaneswar under the Vande Bharat Mission. “We were flooded with calls and emails from distressed Odias here in the UAE. Especially, blue-collar workers requested us to help them in going back to Odisha. Since we couldn’t get any confirmation of flights under the Indian government’s Vande Bharat Mission, we decided to help our countrymen by arranging a charter flight. Each passenger has to pay Dh1,250 for a one-way ticket to Bhubaneswar,” he says.

Payments for the tickets have been done to the airline by passengers through Odisha Samaj. The approvals for the chartered flight had come from India. However, official approval from the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation will be received a few days before the flight’s departure. The group’s efforts are to arrange two more charter flights to send back more people.

According to sources, passengers for this charter flight are majorly blue-collar workers, while the rest include elderly and pregnant women.

“I feel so thankful to each and everyone because of who we all are returning. Earlier after continuous cancellation of my tickets, I had less hope of returning. Since I am travelling during my pregnancy, I am just praying for a safe journey,” says Sasmita Pani, one of the passengers of the flight.

“I believe that I will be well taken care of during my journey. My message to all the expecting mothers during this pandemic is that they and their child are warriors,” she adds.

The group has previously arranged two flights under the Vande Bharat Mission repatriating around 300 distressed citizens of Odisha in the UAE. Those flights took off on May 14 and May 20.

(Pictures are for representational purpose only.)