KOCHI:
As many as 105 French nationals, who were held up due to COVID-19 pandemic-related lockdown, left here for Paris today in a chartered Air India aircraft following the coordinated efforts of Kerala Tourism and the Embassy of France in India.
The special flight that took off from the Cochin International Airport with 112 passengers on board included seven others from Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Sweden and Holland. The arrangements for the home-bound journey of the visitors, stranded in different places in Kerala, were completed quickly.
This is the second batch of tourists being flown from Kerala in less than a week, after the evacuation of 232 visitors from European nations, a majority of them from Germany, on March 31. The outbound travellers included a three-year-old boy and a few elderly people. While most of them are holidaymakers, some of them had come to Kerala for Ayurvedic treatment.
“We are glad that one more batch of foreign tourists has been able to fly home. We have been able to make all arrangements as quickly as possible after getting the request of the French Government. Similar requests from other countries including UK is being seriously considered by the state Government,” said Kerala Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran.
The travel formalities of these passengers including the scrutiny of documents were overseen by Ms Catherine Suard, Consul General of France at Puducherry. “We deeply appreciate the sincere efforts of Kerala Tourism, despite the lockdown constraints, in quickly and successfully arranging the homeward journey of the stranded people from France and other countries”, she said.
“Those tourists who were asymptomatic and had completed 14 days in isolation in Kerala or tested negative to Covid-19 were considered for return journey,” said Rani George, Secretary, Tourism.
“It is on account of the tireless efforts of Kerala Tourism and perfect coordination with the Consulate General of France that resulted in this smooth and quick evacuation . Tracking down each of these persons was not an easy task. It was on the basis of the information provided by the Embassy of France that the foreign nationals and their places of stay were located,” she said.
George pointed out that the round-the-clock help desks, set up by the tourism department, in the state capital and district centres had played a major role in this task.
“The officials of Kerala Tourism had made great efforts in tracing and identifying the guests held up in different locations. Kerala police also extended a great deal of help, ” said P Bala Kiran, Director ,Tourism.
A team of Kerala Tourism officials, led by Joint Director Raj Kumar, had worked hard for the transportation and repatriation of these foreigners by completing the mandatory requirements. Also flawless arrangements were made at the Cochin International Airport for the repatriation. The outbound passengers underwent the medical check-up and had their documents scrutinized in a hotel here before boarding the flights.
