SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Authorities repatriated 68 Kurdish civilians who were stranded in India to the Kurdistan Region on Monday.
The civilians arrived in the Kurdistan Region through Erbil international airport, after Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi ordered the repatriation of Iraqis stranded in India.
Iraq suspended all flights to and from India due to sharp increase in coronavirus cases in the latter.
“They have been quarantined,” Director of Health in Sulaimani Sabah Hawrami told Esta Media Network.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said people who went to India for medical treatment would be repatriated at first.
The Ministry of Health said in April that civilians who are returning from India would be quarantined for 14 days upon their arrival to the Kurdistan Region.
“Even if the second PCR test was negative, those people would be quarantined at their home for the third week and will be monitored by the medical teams,” the ministry said.
Iraqi Ambassador to India Falah al-Saadi told state news agency INA that there were around one thousand Iraqis in India.
