Stranded South Africans in India are homeward bound – but others remain trapped

South Africans stranded in India are set to return at last, and four more flights from Doha are on the cards. South Africans stuck across West Africa are also coming home.  

About 300 South Africans stranded in India for the last seven weeks – and becoming ever more desperate – should be on their way home next week on an SAA charter flight arranged by the South African government.

Meanwhile, the government this week approved four more flights operated by Qatar Airways to repatriate stranded SA nationals.

South African airline Cemair is currently flying to Morocco and West Africa to collect about 75 South Africans stranded across the region.

After pleas to Daily Maverick and other media about their plight, the South African government informed SA citizens in India on Friday that an SAA charter flight would collect them from Mumbai and New Delhi on 22 May.  

They will have to pay R15,000 for a one-way ticket home. If they already have an SAA ticket, they will have to pay any difference in cost. Destitute South Africans can, however, arrange a loan from the SA government.

Earlier this week, one of the stranded South Africans, Sharon Ryan, sent Daily Maverick a petition which the group had been circulating, urging the South African government to bring them home urgently.

“STRANDED IN INDIA!!! South Africa bring your people HOME!!! This is an URGENT APPEAL for help,” the petition began.

“Amongst the elderly and children who make up our numbers, is a stage 4 cancer patient, someone who suffers from diabetes and ischemic heart disease, both out of medication, and a young medical student who lost his father to Covid-19, with no assistance from DIRCO to get home for the funeral,” the petition read.

“Another who suffers heat intolerance and is stuck in the Thar desert in temperatures ranging 38-45 degrees Celsius, suffering heat exhaustion. Ben Joubert from our High Commission in Delhi (the deputy high commissioner) has been a pillar, yet can offer little solace in the face of no plan from DIRCO.

“Medication HAS run out. Money is running out. Nerves are frazzled. Emotions are running high. Negativity is spiraling. Depression is setting in. Families are separated and distraught, consumed with worry for their stranded parents, siblings, spouses and children.

“The ‘excuse’ was India’s ‘closed airspace’. To commercial flights, yes. Not to flights arranged by embassies for repatriation! As has been proven by the various airlines that repatriated Europeans from India. Now India has opened their airspace to repatriate their own people.”

The petition complained that for over six weeks, the SA government had done nothing to raise their hopes. 

“Even in the face of all possible solutions presented from our side and various stakeholders offering assistance, we’re still left hanging. 

“Will it take the loss of one of our lives to mobilise DIRCO into action? And will they accept responsibility for that eventuality? This lack of empathy, transparency and communication is tantamount to violating our human rights as South African citizens.”

The government eventually heard their plea – but only, Ryan believes, because they “blitzed the media”.  

“Dirco SA remains under fire,” Ryan said on Friday. “And are far from off the hook! At the end of the day, they’ve left us stranded and suffering, without acknowledgement (until we started blitzing the media) and without a word of reassurance. For 7 weeks!”

However, deputy high commissioner Ben Joubert told Daily Maverick that the high commission and Dirco in Pretoria had been “working 24/7” to try to get a flight arranged, but had faced huge logistical challenges imposed by the lack of international flights. Also, India’s lockdown had stopped domestic flights and other public transport such as trains.

Ryan, meanwhile, said she was stuck in the Thar desert, which is about 400 kilometres west of New Delhi, towards the Pakistan border.  

“I had been solo travelling through India since 2 February when I came across a women’s empowerment NGO that needed help with branding for fundraising. Joined them in Jodhpur on 2 March.

“Two weeks into the project, they brought all the volunteers to visit their rural desert mission. Lockdown descended the day we were meant to leave. That’s how we got stuck there. It’s truly beautiful here. But… like the irony of life, it’s heaven on earth. Just burns like hell.

“I’ve never been so hot in my life; daily temperatures 38-45 degrees. Overnight 28-33 degrees. With only a humble fan for comfort. Wish I could say it was ‘cold comfort’. Alas.

“I was meant to fly back 2 May, but of course all commercial flights were cancelled.”

Ryan said the stranded South Africans were now coordinating plans to get to New Delhi and Mumbai in time. First they had to get travel permits from the South African High Commission in New Delhi to be able to move around India. 

“We’re currently trying to mobilise groups with a coordinator in each state to arrange group travel to Mumbai or New Delhi, whichever is closer. 

“Finances are a challenge for some, but Dirco is offering assistance.”

She said the organisers of the group were encouraging all members to act with haste in filling out forms, forwarding information required by the authorities and booking their tickets on the SAA website.

The group had also arranged a hotel in New Delhi for those departing from there, to ensure easy transport to the airport next Friday. 

Trains were now operating but getting tickets was a nightmare, she said. She had arranged to share a taxi with a German woman who was also flying out of New Delhi next week. 

A group of three South Africans, who were doing business training in Kolkota far to the south when they were caught by the lockdown, are being charged R17,800 for a car ride to Mumbai to catch the flight. 

“But the first prize is just to get them home,” their human resources manager in South Africa said. “They are emotionally drained and scared of catching the virus. They just want to come home.” 

SA government sources said the Indian government would be offered the opportunity of using the outward bound flight of the SAA charter to repatriate Indians stranded in South Africa. This had not been finalised by Friday afternoon. 

Meanwhile, after delays and other hiccups, the South African government’s  National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (Natjoints) this week approved a Qatar Airways flight to repatriate stranded South Africans from Doha to Johannesburg on 12 May. It then gave the go-ahead for four more flights, on 16, 20, 24 and 28 May.

Many South Africans stranded in various places abroad are flying to Doha to connect to these flights. 

Stranded South Africans should book on the airline’s website: although it’s too late to book the flight on 16 May.

The small South African airline Cemair is currently flying to Casablanca, Morocco; Nouakchott, Mauritania; Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso;  Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire; and Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo, to collect around 75 South Africans who have been stranded across that region since the March lockdown began. DM