बेबाक · Editorial
Stranded Umrah Pilgrims Need an Evacuation Plan, Not a Wait for Commercial Flights
With Gulf routes suspended into November, the Centre must treat poorer pilgrims and expatriates in Saudi Arabia as a consular duty, not a market problem left to ticket prices.
Routes Shut Into November
Air India and Air India Express have extended their suspension of flights to Riyadh and Dammam until November 7, and to Jeddah until October 31, citing the prevailing situation in the region. IndiGo and Akasa Air have also prolonged their cancellations. The Indian Embassy in Riyadh has been put on high alert after an attack by Iran-backed Houthi militants, and it has issued a special advisory urging Indian citizens to stay indoors. For the many Indians who live, work or worship in the Kingdom, the usual routes home have narrowed sharply, and some will stay shut into November. The question is no longer whether there is a disruption. It is whether the state's response matches the scale and the duration of it.
Market Exit or State Duty
The core tension is simple. Indian carriers have suspended their services, and travellers have been left with the fares available on Saudi Arabian airlines. Those who can pay will manage. Those who cannot are stuck. The AIMIM chief has urged the Centre to arrange special flights. He has said that many of the stranded Umrah pilgrims come from economically weaker backgrounds and cannot afford fresh tickets on Saudi Arabian airlines to return to India. The point deserves an answer on its merits. A citizen's way home from a conflict zone should not depend on whether he can afford a second ticket on a foreign airline.
The Case for Caution
The strongest case for the present approach also deserves a fair hearing. Airlines suspend routes for a reason. When an airport in the region has itself come under attack, no ministry should order crews and aircraft into harm's way merely to look decisive. The Ministry of External Affairs, through its spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, says Indian missions in Saudi Arabia are working to facilitate the early return of stranded pilgrims. About 3,000 stranded Umrah pilgrims have travelled home on available flights over the past week. That is real work, done quietly. A measured, mission-led process may well be safer than a dramatic airlift, and it uses capacity that is already flying rather than sending new aircraft into an uncertain environment.
What the Reports Show
Even so, the security picture is serious. An Indian national has been reported killed in an attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam. Another person was also killed, and two Indian nationals were injured. A day later, the Houthis claimed they had rescued 14 Indians from a yacht, and India has said it is extending help. The Houthi account is a claim by an armed group and should be read with care until it is independently confirmed. But the attack on the Dammam airport, the Riyadh embassy's advisory, the airline suspensions and the MEA's own account of its work together point the same way. The risk is real, and on the airlines' own timetable it will last weeks, not days.
The Verdict
The Centre has not been idle, but it is still relying largely on available commercial flights to bring people home. Three thousand returns in a week is welcome. Yet the figures made public so far do not show how many pilgrims and workers are still waiting, or how many of them cannot afford the fares now on offer. The state has the capacity to do more than wait. When commercial routes are expected to stay shut until November 7, the gap between the people who can pay and the people who cannot becomes a question of public duty. Consular protection is not charity. It is what citizenship means abroad.
A Workable Way Forward
Three steps are feasible now. First, the MEA should publish regular figures on stranded nationals, kept separate for pilgrims and for workers, so that the public and Parliament can see the scale of the problem. Second, the Indian missions in Saudi Arabia should register people who cannot afford return fares. Those people should be flown home on chartered or government-arranged flights, or on seats block-booked on carriers still operating. Where it is justified, the costs should come from public funds meant for the welfare of Indians abroad. Third, the government should agree a clear standard with Saudi authorities and Indian carriers on when routes will reopen. Safety must decide the timetable, but no Indian should be left behind for being poor.
A citizen's way home from a conflict zone should not depend on whether he can afford a second ticket on a foreign airline.
What this editorial rests on
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An editorial is the considered opinion of the FarziUPSC desk, argued from the sourced reporting above and written under our published persona, बेबाक. We name institutions, not parties. If we are wrong, we will say so. How we work →