Coronavirus lockdown: NRIs stranded in India desperate to return to US

Tejaswi is worried about missing her appointment with a doctor in Michigan on May 26. The fear of losing his job in Boston is giving Srikanth sleepless nights. Rashmi Deshpande desperately wants to go back to her eight-year-old autistic son in Maryland.

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They are among the hundreds of the Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), who live and work in the United States, but are now stranded in India due to the ban imposed on international passenger flights to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

They all have now reached the end of their tethers with the government extending the curbs beyond Sunday.

“They are now saying it (the curbs imposed to contain the COVID-19 pandemic) has been extended till May 17. But I don’t know if they will start outbound flights even after May 17,” Tejaswi told the DH from Vijaywada in Andhra Pradesh. “If I miss my appointment with the doctor, it may take months before we will be able to reschedule it.”

She lives in Michigan in the United States where her husband Phani is an Informational Technology (IT) professional. She came to Vijaywada on February 15 and was planning to return to Michigan on March 28, but got stuck due to the lockdown and the ban on international flights imposed to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Srikanth came to Bengaluru on March 15 with his children for a family emergency, leaving his wife alone in Boston, where the techie couple has been living for several years now. “I must return immediately or I may end up losing my job,” he said, with reports about the economic downturn and growing unemployment adding to his worries.

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Rashmi Deshpande has been living in Maryland in the US for the last 18 years. She came to India on March 21 to perform the last rites of her mother, who had passed away a few days ago. “Stuck here since (for) 1.5 (one and a half) months,” she posted on Twitter. “I need to go back home to Maryland to my eight-year-old autistic son.”

Another NRI, who did not want to be identified, came to Mangaluru from Atlanta in the US after his father was hospitalized in February. His father eventually passed away on March 3. He, however, got stuck due to the lockdown and travel and transport curbs. “My wife is five months pregnant. She is with my six-year-old son in Atlanta, taking care of him alone,” he said. “It is extremely stressful and traumatic to leave her alone in such a situation and I feel helpless that I cannot do anything”

Tejaswi, Srikanth and Rashmi joined many others to urge the government to restart outbound flights from India so that they could go back to their families in the US. “If the government allows a limited number of outbound flights taking people stranded in India to the US, it will not expose the country to any new risk or undermine the efforts to contain the COVID-19,” Srikanth told the DH. “There is no blanket ban on inbound flights in the US.”

The stranded NRIs pointed out that the government had already helped the US and other foreign nations to evacuate their citizens from India by special aircraft. “If the government can allow the foreign citizens to leave, why cannot they open some outbound flights so that we can return to our families, our workplaces?” wondered Sai, a research scientist in Oregon, currently stranded in Chennai.

“We read news-reports about the government planning evacuation of citizens from foreign countries. They will obviously send empty aircraft for evacuating people,” Sai said, adding: “What we are urging the government to allow us to board the empty aircraft and reach some place where we can take connecting flights to our respective destinations in the US.”

Another NRI, who works in the US on (the) H1B visa, came to India in the last week of February with his wife and newborn baby so that his parents could see their grandchild. They were planning to return on March 26 but got stuck due to (the) ban on international flights. “I am now living in fear of losing (my) job all the time. I am the lone earner in my family. My salary has been stopped already. I don’t know how I would pay rent, repay my loans and pay for my insurances and other bills in the US. These are really huge amounts and I won’t (be) able to pay anymore without any salary there.”

“My job and livelihood everything is at stake. I am on a valid H1B visa and my employer is pressuring me to return back as early as possible,” Shankar (name changed), one of the many stranded NRIs, said.

The stranded NRIs started online petitions requesting the government to start outbound international flights. “The inability to return to the destination of choice is causing a lot of problems for people, including but not limited to loss of employment, financial burden and debt due to loss of income, loss of immigration status, anxiety,” one of the online petition, already signed by over 8600 people, pointed out, adding: “If the air traffic is not restored soon, people's lives will be severely upended and people will have to suffer the consequences of it for years to come. While we realize that COVID-19 has put us in an unprecedented situation, we request the government to reinstate international flight traffic in a staggered manner, even with case by case approvals if needed, so that people in dire need to travel can avail this facility.”

Many stranded NRIs drew the attention of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi while tweeting about their plight.

“Sir, we r (are) emotionally drained, broken being separated 4m (from) family. We have more damages like losing job(s), visa status etc going on than worrying about the hidden virus. Please resume outbound flight to US & (and) let us go,” Subhasree Sridhar posted on Twitter, replying to a tweet by the Prime Minister. “I hope you will listen (to) me. Pls (please) start Int (international) outbound flight. My family is there nd (and) my wife alone now in (the) US with my 5 yr (year) old kid. She is so scared and not able to handle alone. I came here for 5 days due to (a) family emergency and now I am not able to go. Pls (please) help,” Pradeep Choudhary, another NRI, tweeted, replying to a post by Minister for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri.

“My young son is missing primary care from his physician, his vaccines and therapy. We have been stranded here for the last 50 days,” tweeted Sooraj Purandare, who works as a software developer in the US, but is now stranded in India. “We need to get back home. Forget the economic cost. There is a humanitarian cost that is growing each day.”