Indian twin brothers flying home after spending 50 days at Dubai airport

A pair of Indian identical twins, stranded at the Dubai airport for nearly 50 days due to the COVID-19-induced international travel lockdown, breathed a huge sigh of relief when they came to know that they are among the first 354 passengers to fly back to India from the UAE on Thursday.

The tired and homesick 30-year-old brothers, Jackson and Benson Andrews, have been stranded inside the Dubai International Airport's terminal 3 since March 19 while they were returning from Lisbon, Portugal, the Khaleej Times reported.

The twins were among the 177 Indian passengers who will be boarding the second repatriation flight to Kozhikode in Kerala on Thursday, it said.

They were among the 19 Indian passengers who were stuck inside the airport for over a month.

"We received the letter from the consulate on Tuesday. A copy of our flight tickets have been sent to us as well," Jackson told the daily.

Press consul at the Indian consulate, Neeraj Aggarwal, said, "Based on the schedule of flights and the destination of passengers, these 19 stranded Indians will all be flying out on priority in the coming week."