Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala has abandoned plans to charter flights from Saudi Arabia to bring back overstaying workers.
The state’s minister for non-resident affairs, K C Joseph, said the authorities were forced to abandon the plan to operate special flights from Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam due to inadequate demand.
“We need at least 150 passengers to charter a flight. But the applications we received were far below that number,” the minister, who is currently in Sidney, Australia, said in a statement issued here yesterday.
The government decided to operate chartered flights from November 20 to airlift stranded expatriates after the deadline for legalising the job and residence status under the Nitaqat (naturalisation) law ended on November 3.
Separate advisory committees of expatriate volunteers were formed in the three Saudi cities to collect applications from those who registered at the Indian diplomatic missions before the deadline expired.
13/11/13 Ashraf Padanna/Gulf Times
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The state’s minister for non-resident affairs, K C Joseph, said the authorities were forced to abandon the plan to operate special flights from Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam due to inadequate demand.
“We need at least 150 passengers to charter a flight. But the applications we received were far below that number,” the minister, who is currently in Sidney, Australia, said in a statement issued here yesterday.
The government decided to operate chartered flights from November 20 to airlift stranded expatriates after the deadline for legalising the job and residence status under the Nitaqat (naturalisation) law ended on November 3.
Separate advisory committees of expatriate volunteers were formed in the three Saudi cities to collect applications from those who registered at the Indian diplomatic missions before the deadline expired.
13/11/13 Ashraf Padanna/Gulf Times
