Left in lurch: Indian students, salaried professionals forced to hire charter aircrafts to return to Korea, India

NEW DELHI: Hundreds of Indian professionals are on the verge of losing their jobs in South Korea, and students their career as they continue to get stranded in India for the want of international flights.

These disgruntled Indians are the ones who either work or study in Korea and had visited India before the country was put under lockdown and flights were canceled in March.

Similarly, there is another lot of Indians who are stuck in Korea and are waiting to return to India but there seem no repatriation Air India flights in the sight under the Vande Bharat Mission.

Air India had operated one flight from India to Incheon (Korea) and back to India on June 6 and 7 respectively under Vande Bharat Mission but many Indians are still left out in both the countries and the Indian government has not announced any further flights for Korea under the same mission.

The Indian embassy has its hands up and reportedly told the stranded Indian nationals that the fundamental purpose of the Vande Bharat Mission is to bring stranded Indians from all over the world back home, not from India to other countries.

These Indians have alleged that the Indian embassy in Seoul was not helping them in this time of difficulty, and was suggesting them hire a charter plane instead, a costly affair for the salaried people and students.

Madhurima Nandya, is a PhD student at Postech, Pohang, Korea from Kolkata and also a student representative of Indians stranded in India has been toiling with other group members for collecting various data for presenting proper information to all the authorities of South Korea and India.

Under her supervision and guidance, the students mailed and tweeted to all Indian ministries like MEA and DGCA and PMO to provide at least two more VBM flights to Seoul.

“Though one flight was provided on 6th June ( AI-312), it was insufficient in carrying all students and employees back to India. Much mismanagement by Air India and government officials were reported as it was witnessed that the families who had no emergency to reach Korea boarded this flight, leaving back the needy students and employees,” Nandya said.

She said although they understood that family members were important, it had only jeopardized the students and employees risking their future and financial stability.

The students and employees who are on the verge of losing jobs or tenureship if not returned within June should have been prioritized at all expenses as they are the real victims here.

Some students, although they did manage to book some tickets but they had to pay 63 thousand INR while others paid only 45 thousand INR showing the cruelty imposed on poor students who were already facing financial crunch due to no scholarship since March. It was also seen that for a few minutes, online booking was activated on the 3rd of May and the price of the ticket was around 73 thousand INR.

Altogether, this has only caused delay and chaos instead of providing relief to fellow Indians who are stranded in Korea and India, eagerly waiting for another Vande Bharat Mission flight as the government has just issued 1VBM flight for Korea when other countries are benefitted with 3-4flights under the same mission.

On the other hand, the Indian Embassy in Korea left it to the privately constituted group of Indians – Indians in Korea (IIK), and said that IIK would be organizing a chartered flight from Korea to India on June 18.

Manish Patil, a Korean MNC executive from Maharashtra has his wife stuck in India since March after she had visited her parents there.

“Now we are forced to turn to charter flights that are going to cost us huge. Especially people with low salaries and students cannot afford charter flights. Our group is in negotiation with private airliners like Asiana. But ideally, it is the responsibility of the Indian embassy in Korea that is not helping us and left us on our own to arrange for flights to India and Korea. The embassy is telling us Vande Bharat Mission flights are for the evacuation of stranded abroad not for the Indians to fly them from India to other countries,” Patil said.

On the other hand, The Korean government with close association with Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) in India has arranged a flight to evacuate its workers from India who is working in LG and Samsung. The flight is an Asiana flight that will fly from Delhi to Incheon on the 20th of June. They are reported to have fixed the price to 1.19million wons.

Patil said that attempts were being made to book the 180 seats left in the Asiana flight that is bringing Koreans from India to Korea on June 20.

The Indians alleged that the mismanagement by Air India was so chaotic that even after issuing special tickets for students by Amit Gupta, Deputy Director of DGCA, two students were denied tickets even after sufficient proofs.

“Hence we would urge the government to immediately intervene and provide us with a VBM flight for Korea ( who has not restricted Indians or any international travel till date) and help in saving the careers and lives of many students and employees who build up the international relations between India and Korea in return since ages,” said the Indian nationals in a statement.

In its response, the Consular Wing, Embassy of India in Seoul told the Indians, “We understand that difficulties of Indian nationals to return to Korea. At the same time, please understand that the fundamental purpose of the Vande Bharat Mission is to bring stranded Indians from all over the world back home. In that process, those Indians who need to travel to foreign countries to pursue their work or education are being enabled to travel. In ROK, Embassy has worked closely with the Indian community leaders to facilitate the travel of stranded Indians back to India. Thus, through the VMB flight on June 7, all stranded Indians have been successfully brought back home, and the need to press for any more VBM flights is thus not there.”

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