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No Respite for Indians Stranded in Locked-Down Italy
The Wire Science
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No Respite for Indians Stranded in Locked-Down Italy

12/03/2020
Jaishankar is also expected to call upon Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement on Saturday. Photo: PTI

Devirupa Mitra is Deputy Editor and Diplomatic Correspondent at The…

Union Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar. Photo: PTI.

New Delhi: It will be a long wait for Indians in Italy before they can return home.

After Italy locked down its northern cities first and then the whole country within a week, Indians attempting to return home on scheduled flights found themselves waiting in long lines at airports in Rome and Milan.

As per the latest figures of WHO, Italy has 10,149 confirmed cases, with 631 reported deaths. This is the highest number outside China.

The Indian Union health ministry’s notification on March 6 required all passengers from Italy and South Korea to carry a negative certificate to enter the country from March 10. Unfortunately, this notice wasn’t publicised very much until hundreds of Indians at an Italian airport flooded social media with posts of their distress and contacted politicians back home on Tuesday night.

On Wednesday, and again on Thursday, India’s external affairs minister S. Jaishankar noted in parliament that it was difficult to get the certificate in the “Italian system because the Italian system is busy treating patients in Italy.”

The workaround was similar to what Iran had done: send a medical team to collect samples that would have to be brought to India for testing.

Ananya Kumar, a masters student at Johns Hopkins SAIS in Bologna, in northern Italy, said she had planned to catch a flight on Wednesday morning for Delhi. “I was not allowed on the flight because to catch a flight to India, I need COVID-19 test, and to get a COVID-19 test I need to show symptoms of COVID-19,” she told The Wire.

Bologna is the capital of the Emilio Romagna region, which has been completely locked down since March 8.

With no symptoms, hospitals or doctors haven’t been able to conduct any tests. “I’ve called the emergency coronavirus number and talked to a doctor, who gave me the no-symptoms certificate. The consensus is that I cannot get a COVID-19 certificate,” Kumar said.

She added that there had been no news from the embassy until Wednesday. “A couple of embassy officials called me to reassure me that they were taking all measures to get Indian citizens out of Delhi, and [that they would] reach out to us in the next couple of days.”

Sayantan Pal, 20, is studying business administration at Università Ca’ Foscari University in Venice. He said he was to return to India on March 16. However, “the hospital won’t test you for COVID-19 unless you show serious symptoms. They’ll send you back home” (within Italy).

When Indians had asked for details about testing centres, the Indian missions had initially stated that they were still “checking on the available facilities in Italy with the concerned authorities”.

In contrast, the Indian embassy in South Korea seemed to be better informed. On March 9, the Indian mission in Seoul listed testing centres and drive-through clinics in 24 South Korean cities that could provide a negative certificate for COVID-19.

At a media briefing, officials of India’s ministry of external affairs (MEA) clarified that they would like Indians to not travel to India. “We understand that there are a lot of students whose universities have shut down and need to come back, and tourists who have [also] gone there,” additional secretary Dammu Ravi, MEA’s coordinator for COVID-19 response, said. “But our first advice would be to stay put if you can.”

The additional secretary (foreigners) at the Ministry of Home Affairs told reporters that the number of Indians returning to India had dropped by 40% in the last 20 days. “On February 20, there were 63,000 Indians arriving in airports. This number has come down to 40,000 on March 10,” he said.

However, most Indians The Wire spoke to wanted to come back to India as soon as possible.

“There are food shortages here,” Pal, the student of business, said. Kumar also said there was also anxiety that Italy was going to close its borders as well. “I would rather be facing this crisis at home. For a lot of people, it’s probably about not violating visa terms and being with their families as well.”

Meanwhile, there were also reports that Indians were still camping at airports in Milan and Rome.

Indian embassy officials had to go to the airport to inform them of the latest from Delhi.

Phaniram Vanavarma, a board member of the Italian association of northern Italy, said the Indians stranded in airports had booked their flights much earlier and didn’t know at the time that they would require specific certificates.

Vrushal Parkar, who resides in the Liguria region in northwest Italy and holds a work visa, was told by Indian embassy officials that hundreds of Indian students were stranded in airports in Rome and Milan. He himself was waiting for the Indian medical team to arrive in Italy and obtain the samples for testing.

During the briefing, MEA’s Ravi had said the medical team would leave for Italy on Friday. “In Italy, Rome and Milan are two cities where the team is supposed to go.”

The Indian medical team in Iran first went to Qom – the epicentre of the local outbreak – to collect samples from Indian pilgrims on March 5. Given the large number of samples brought back and the limited number of labs in India, the results are taking time.

The first batch of samples from Iran numbered 109; subsequently, 58 pilgrims were flow from Iran on March 7 in a special flight operated by the Indian Air Force. This flight also carried 529 additional samples, of which 299 have tested negative thus far, Jaishankar told Lok Sabha on Thursday.

An Iranian medical team is now in Tehran for further tests. There are about 6,000 Indians in Iran in all and all of them will need to be repatriated.

However, Ravi had also said the Indian evacuation effort would focus only on those Indians who would test negative for COVID-19.

Moreover, a frustrated Parkar told The Wire that the Indian consulate office had informed him that Indian doctors would only be checking students. “I don’t know what is this. We are also Indians and [here for] a short period on contractual work.”

He also said there has been “endless” confusion over the testing provisions. “Either we have to go out and get ourselves exposed and wait for a certificate – or remain locked down at home and wait until the devil knocks on the door.”

Even with negative certificates, Indians travelling from Italy and South Korea will have to be quarantined for two weeks upon arrival in India, according to a consolidated advisory the health ministry issued on March 11.

On Thursday evening, the Indian embassy sent out a list of instructions over email and WhatsApp, subsequently shared by Indian nationals based in Italy.

“This is only for Indian students in Italy:

1. To solve the medical certificate prob, GOI is sending a team of doctors to Rome tomorrow. Team will collect sample and will return India for the final result. The sample will be collected at the Embassy of India, Rome.

2. As per the list, we will call one by one and take the test samples.

3. A self-declaration form will be given at the time of sample collection in Embassy

4. Test samples collected will be sent to India. It will take approx 1 week for the results to be received.

5. Those who are not registered, please do it now.

6. All the persons with negative COVID-19 result will be allowed to travel India.

7. Mandatory quarantine of 14 days in the government specified facilities in India upon arrival

8. Air India has stated that they are allowing cancellation without any cancellation charge.”

Several hours later, the embassy send out an email with directions that the Indian medical team will be in Rome on Friday evening. Indian students were told to reach the Indian embassy by five in the evening to have their swabs collected for testing in India.

They were also instructed to carry the self-declaration form of the Italian interior ministry, filled in with the reason for their presence outside on the streets during the lockdown period. Italian police apparently can fine anyone over 200 euros, if they are outside without the self-declaration form.
A page from the self-declaration form that has to be carried by anyone venturing outside during the lock-down period in Italy.

Mohammad Salik Zeya Ansari, a researcher and doctor at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Pathology, National Research Council, Rome, had booked a flight but cancelled it due to the new provisions about the mandatory quarantine. “Even if I [test] negative, I still will have to [be quarantined] for 14 days, so no use of coming to India.”

While the situation in Italy’s northern areas which had been locked down for longer period is not pretty, Rome isn’t much better. “Talking about Rome: everything is closed except pharmacies and supermarkets,” Ansari said. “They are also not allowing people to enter in [groups] into the pharmacies or supermarkets, but only in groups of five or six,” he said.

Venturing outside even for groceries is stressful thanks to police control, Ansari thinks they’re paying more attention to foreigners.

“As we are non-Italian, we are facing more discrimination everywhere,” he said. “People change their way of walking and avoid contact with us. [When] we are caught by the police, they ask us why we are roaming [during an] emergency even if we’ve [stepped out] to buy food.”

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