Indian Navy repatriates over 600 Indians from Iran

TUTICORIN: The Indian Navy on Wednesday repatriated over 600 Indians from Iran as part of the Centre's "Samudra Setu" mission to evacuate stranded Indian citizens from abroad.
Indian Navy Ship Jalashwa repatriated 687 Indian nationals, most of them fishermen, from Iran and arrived at the VOC Port here today.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said of the 687 persons who arrived here today, 651 were fishermen from Tamil Nadu, while 36 others hailed from Kerala.

"Appreciate the support of Iranian Govt in facilitating the repatriation....under Operation #Samudrasetu," he said in a tweet.

The ship had left Bandar Abbas in Iran on June 25.

On arrival, the evacuees were screened by the Port Health officials and their luggage was sanitised as per COVID-19 protocol.

Self-declaration forms were obtained from the passengers and after completion of Immigration and Customs formalities, they were taken to their respective districts by buses.

The Indian Navy has deployed its ships 'Jalashwa' and 'Airawat' to carry stranded Indians from different parts of the world like Maldives and Sri Lanka and has so far repatriated about 4,000 such persons, the Navy said.