Health Ministry mandates 14-day quarantine for Afghans evacuees returning amid chaos

Taking a note of the spreading rate of COVID-19, the Health Ministry on Tuesday in a statement announced that a 14-day institutional quarantine is mandatory for evacuees returning from Afghanistan. The repatriated Afghans will have to stay in quarantine at ITBP’s Chawla Camp in Delhi. The statement comes after growing concern on the fear of the potential COVID-19 spread, as many return from Afghanistan amid mounting chaos.

Indians evacuated from Afghanistan under 'Operation Dev Shakti'

Under operation Devi Shakti, around 228 Indians have been brought back while 77 Afghan Sikhs have been evacuated so far. An Air India flight safely brought back 78 passengers including 46 Afghanistan Sikhs to the national capital on August 24. These passengers initiated the flight from Kabul to Tajikistan on an Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft. 
 

Earlier evacuations 

On Sunday, India returned 392 individuals three separate aircrafts, including two Afghan legislators, as part of a withdrawal operation of its citizens and Afghan partners from Kabul. Afghan legislators Anarkali Honaryar and Narender Singh Khalsa, and their family members were some of the 168 individuals rescued from Kabul. A C-17 heavy-lift military transport plane of the Indian Air Force (IAF) flew 168 passengers from Kabul to the Hindon airfield near Delhi, comprising 107 Indians and 23 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus.

According to news agency PTI, A batch of 87 Indians and two Nepalese nationals were flown back from Dushanbe on a special Air India flight a day after being transported to the Tajikistan capital on an IAF 130J transport plane. Similarly, in recent days, 135 Indians who had been evacuated separately from Kabul to Doha by US and NATO planes were transported back to Delhi from the Qatari capital. As per the PTI report, India coordinated the rescue operations with the United States and several other allied nations. A small number of Indian officials are directing the evacuation effort at the Kabul airport, and another group of Indians is likely to return to India on Monday. 

Situation in Afghanistan

The scenario in Afghanistan is deteriorating, as thousands of people rush to flee the country after the Taliban took power on August 15. The country's government collapsed on Sunday, shortly after President Ashraf Ghani fled the nation. This resulted in other nations airlifting their citizens from the violence-inflicted country. Likewise, the Ministry of External Affairs of India has stated that the government is responsible for ensuring the safe return of all Indian people from Afghanistan. 

Image: AP