SC asks Centre to treat as representation plea seeking repatriation of Indians from Kuwait

The Supreme Court Friday asked the Centre to treat as representation a plea seeking direction to it to make arrangement for repatriation of Indian migrant workers who were granted amnesty by Kuwait amid COVID-19 pandemic and are living in vulnerable conditions in deportation camps there.

Observing that there seems to be a problem in Kuwait, a bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao said that the authority would treat the plea as a representation and dispose it of expeditiously.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench, also comprising Justices S K Kaul and B R Gavai, that adequate arrangements are being made by the government to bring back stranded Indian citizens from abroad and several of them have already been brought back from Kuwait.

The counsel appearing for the petitioner told the bench, which was hearing the matter through video-conferencing, that thousands of Indian citizens are still kept in deportation camps in Kuwait in vulnerable conditions.

The plea, filed through advocate Jose Abraham, has said that Kuwait had granted general amnesty to those who do not have valid residency permits in the country due to difficulties faced on account of the COVID-19 outbreak.

It had said that those granted general amnesty in Kuwait were initially given time till April 30 to make arrangements for leaving the country, failing which they would be subjected to imprisonment.

"However, due to the current lockdown which is in place and international travel restrictions due to outbreak of pandemic COVID-19, the petitioners and similarly placed expats who are beneficiaries of the general amnesty granted by state of Kuwait are unable to return to India and are languishing in detention camps in the state of Kuwait," the plea, filed by four Indian citizens who are in Kuwait, had said.

It had said that due to space crunch in such camps, social distancing is impossible and this makes the petitioners as well as similarly placed Indian citizens vulnerable to coronavirus infection.

The plea had claimed that Kuwait has offered to send back the petitioners along with other similarly placed people to India free of cost and by its own civil airlines.

It had sought a direction to the Centre and other concerned authorities to facilitate flights offered by Kuwait to land at Indian airports and receive all the repatriated beneficiaries of the amnesty.

It had alleged that the petitioners have sent representation to various officials, including the External Affairs Minister and other officials at Indian Embassy in Kuwait, but no action has been taken to repatriate them back to India.