The government of India has revealed a ship of the Indian Navy is scheduled to arrive in the Maldives within a week to repatriate another 700 Indian nationals from the Maldives.
The Indian government stated the naval ship, INS Jalashwa, will set sail for the Maldives on June 1, and is expected to arrive within a week. The Indian government plans to evacuate 700 Indians on the return voyage of the ship. The High Commission of India in the Maldives is working on finalising the list of individuals who will be repatriated on this trip.
India has been conducting a major evacuation programme to repatriate Indian nationals stranded overseas amid the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the joint efforts of India and the Maldives, 1,480 Indians have been evacuated from the Maldives so far.
The Maldivian government is also working with the government of Bangladesh to repatriate undocumented Bangladeshi workers from the Maldives. A total of 1,390 Bangladeshis have so far been repatriated from the Maldives across different flights of the national airline Maldivian, Biman Bangladesh Airlines and the Bangladesh Air Force.