Want to return to India? India says 'bear with us' as it extends international flight bans

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has extended the world's biggest pandemic lockdown till May 03, 2020.

People are showing Narendra Modi's Speech on their mobile in Kolkata, India on April 14, 2020. India’s Covid-19 lockdown has been extended until May 3. Source: AAP Image/Biswarup Ganguly / Pacific Press/Sipa USA

Highlights

• India has over 11,487 cases of COVID-19 and more than 393 deaths.
• India has extended its lockdown and international flight ban until May 3, 2020.
• Indians stuck abroad have requested the government to allow them to back into the country.

On Tuesday, the Indian Prime Minister, who had put the entire country into lockdown for 21 days since March 22, announced it was extending its lockdown till next month.

Minutes after Modi’s speech, the Ministry of Civil Aviation announced it was extending its ban on all scheduled international commercial passenger flights until midnight local time of May 3.

Source: DGCA - INDIA

The Minister of Civil Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri said, “There were good reasons for the Lockdown to be extended till 3rd May.

“We can consider lifting restrictions on both domestic & international flights thereafter.

“I understand the problems being faced by people who need to travel & request them to bear with us.”

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Indians stuck abroad desperate to return home

The extension of the international flight ban has left many Indian citizens stuck abroad in a limbo.

Balvir Kaur, who is stuck in Sydney, is desperate to return to India.

She was due to return to India on March 22 but was forced to cancel her departure after India shut down its border.

Her son, who suffered from Hepatitis C, battled for his life in an ICU at an Indian hospital before succumbing to the disease on April 6.

“You can imagine how we feel. My mother could not be with my brother when he was in the ICU,” Simi Ravi Deep, Balvir Kaur’s daughter told SBS Hindi.

“We lost my brother and he was cremated without us.

“We are devastated but we want to go back and do the other rituals,” Ms Ravi Deep said.

Source: Supplied

Ms Kaur is among thousands who are desperate to return to India.

The Indian government has been flooded with requests to allow chartered flights for those desperate to return home.

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