VK Singh arrives in Saudi Arabia to assess situation of Indians: A look at other rescue operations

Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday morning to assess the condition of Indians who have lost their jobs. As Union Minister Sushma Swaraj promised in the Parliament, the government will also make arrangements to bring back Indians, who want to return home.

Arrival & early morning start to the work. With the dependable team @CGIJeddah #NoIndianLeftBehind pic.twitter.com/s5e1SvyFzt

— General Vijay Kumar Singh (@Gen_VKSingh) August 3, 2016

While addressing the Rajya Sabha on Saturday, Swaraj said that she was sending Singh to Riyadh and that the government has ensured rations to all those living in camps there.

My colleagues @Gen_VKSingh will go to Saudi Arabia to sort out these matters and @MJakbar will take up with Kuwait and Saudi authorities./5

— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 30, 2016

Responding to a tweet by Imran Khokhar, Swaraj asked the Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia to serve food to Indians in Jeddah. Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar is also in talks with the Saudi and Kuwait governments for the evacuation of Indians who want to return.

We have asked the Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia to serve you food in Jeddah. /1 @Imran_khokhar84

— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 30, 2016

Swaraj assured the Rajya Sabha that she was personally monitoring the situation and that no Indian worker rendered unemployed will go without food.

The Indian Embassy in Saudi too has collected details of those being laid off. Akbar also met Saudi Ambassador Saud bin Mohammed Al Sati and discussed the difficulties being faced by Indians who have lost their jobs.

Parliament lauded Swaraj during the Monsoon Session for her commendable effort to help Indians stuck in Saudi Arabia. However, this is not the only time when the Indian government has planned and executed a major rescue mission. Here are some others.

Operation Sankat Mochan

In 2016, India launched Operation Sankat Mochan to evacuate Indians from South Sudan. Around 146 Indians were evacuated. The evacuation was planned in coordination with the local authorities, as well as the support of the Indian Peace Keeping Force.

The entire operation took place under the supervision of Swaraj, who had formed a high-level task force to monitor the situation in South Sudan.

Indian nationals - Pls move out of South Sudan. We hv sent two aircrafts. If situation deteriorates, we will not be able to evacuate u.Pl RT

— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 14, 2016

Operation Rahat

India evacuated around 4,000 Indians from war-torn Yemen in 2015. India also received a request from 26 countries, including the United States of America, for help to evacuate their nationals as well. MEA Spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin tweeted the list of countries that had asked for assistance.

Requests for Indian assistance in evacuation from Yemen keeps growing.
On last count 26 requests received. pic.twitter.com/hn3TScsvFh

— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) April 6, 2015

The massive evacuation operation that India launched in Yemen was termed ‘Operation Rahat’. Some Pakistani nationals were also rescued by Indian forces during the operation.

As Firstpost had reported earlier, the Indian government had told the US that it will help rescue American citizens in Yemen. Despite a no-fly zone enforced in Yemeni airspace by international coalition, India requested Saudi Arabia to allow aerial sorties to Saana on daily basis.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi too tweeted about the operation.

Salute the services of our civilian & defence officials & organisations in helping evacuate our citizens from Yemen. Continue your efforts!

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 6, 2015

India completed its air evacuation operation on 9 April. “The entire evacuation effort has resulted in the evacuation of over 5,600 persons. These include over 4,640 Indian nationals and about 960 foreign nationals from 41 countries,” the External Affairs Ministry said.

The evacuation operation from Yemen is over. General V.K.Singh is returning tonight. We are closing our Embassy there.

— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) April 9, 2015

In January 2015, around 1,000 Indians were evacuated from Ukraine after the External Affairs ministry made arrangements to get them to Kiev. The Indian mission in Ukraine facilitated this evacuation from the restive eastern region of Lugansk to Kiev.

In 2014, around 4500 Indians including 750 nurses were evacuated from Libya. National Security Adviser Ajit Doval successfully negotiated the release of 175 Indians including 46 nurses from Iraq.

With inputs from agencies.