More than 700,000 Indian workers had left six Arab Gulf countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the data by the Indian government.

Of the 716,662 employees who returned to India during the time of the pandemic, almost 50 per cent were from the UAE (330,058), followed by Saudi Arabia (137,900), Kuwait (97,802) and Oman (72,259).

According to the Indian Ambassador, most of the Indian workers who left their jobs have to return to their jobs.

During a Parliament session on Thursday, S. Jaishankar, the Minister of External Affairs of India, said the employees returned under the support of the Vande Bharat Mission (VBM), a government-based expulsion mission for Indians stranded abroad due to Covid-19.

The Mission is presently in Phase 15 and has been positively booming in re-housing several workers in the Gulf countries they came from.

Missions such as these utilise the Indian Community Welfare Fund with community associations. This support includes expenses related to lodging, airfares and emergency medical care, said Jaishankar.

“Our primary motive is to get as many workers back there in Gulf countries as soon as possible, as many of them already back to their jobs.”

Maintaining employment and give surety to their wages which are paid, assuring the welfare of workers, these have been very much the priority of our missions in the Gulf,” he said.

“From the most elevated level, we have been engaged on this matter, and we have been continuously in touch talking to the administrations of the Gulf at my level and the ambassadors’ level.”

He further stated that the flights for these two countries are now regular.