Vande Bharat Mission: 1.3 lakh stranded people repatriated in Phase VIII Plus

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Anurag Srivastava on Thursday said that an estimated 1.3 lakh people have been brought back to India under Phase VIII Plus of the Vande Bharat mission.

During his weekly press briefing, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said "Vande Bharat Mission Phase VIII is presently underway since 1 December 2020. This phase is progressing well."

"This includes those who have travelled under bilateral air bubble arrangements that we have in place now with 23 countries," he added.

The MEA spokesperson said that in terms of overall numbers, under the Vande Bharat Mission, the government has repatriated more than 38.4 lakh people so far i.e. from May 2020 onwards since this mission started.

On Wednesday, Union Minister for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri said that 6,188 stranded persons have been repatriated in Phase 7 of Vande Bharat Mission.

Taking to Twitter, Puri shared data that showed that on December 15 (Tuesday) itself 6,188 Indians returned from various locations such as Sharjah, London, Nairobi, among others.

The Vande Bharat Mission was started in early May to evacuate Indians stranded abroad due to coronavirus-induced travel restrictions.