Kochi: Over 125 Indian prisoners deported from Bahrain quarantined

Kochi: Over 125 Indian prisoners who were pardoned by the Bahrain government while being serving sentences in the Gulf nation was deported to India by a special flight and shifted to a naval quarantine facility here, official sources said on Monday, March 18.

The Gulf Air flight carrying 127 deported Indian citizens landed at the Cochin International Airport at 6.45 pm on Sunday.

“The flight returned to Bahrain with its 60 citizens stranded in Kerala due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Ernakulam District administration officials said.

“The deportees were shifted to the naval quarantine facility at School for Naval Airmen (SFNA) after completing all formalities based on the COVID-19 protocol,” they said.

The deportees were brought from CIAL by special KSRTC buses under the aegis of the district administration and handed over to naval authorities at the naval base here.

A Defence spokesman said as per the directives of Government of India, the deportees were to be initially quarantined in a Military base -at Kochi Naval Base where they would be regularly monitored by trained naval health professionals.

After the mandatory 14-day quarantine period, the deportees would be handed over to the care of state agencies for their further transfer to their home stations.

The Navy’s quarantine facility at Kochi with a 200-bed capacity was set up on March 20 and has been serving as a transit quarantine camp for naval personnel returning to Kochi for duty after leave.

The camp is being managed by trained naval doctors and personnel from the Southern Naval Command.

“Meanwhile, 347 Indians stranded in the UAE due to the COVID-19 pandemic arrived here on Sunday evening in two special Air India Express flights from Dubai and Abud Dhabi,” Ernakulam district administration officials said.