After fear, uncertainty, homecoming sweet for foreign returnees in Chandigarh

As foreign returnees begin arriving home, they bring tales of despair and suffering with them, brought on by the Covid pandemic and the hardships posed due to consequent shutdown of cities across the world.

For the 20-year-old from Attawa village in Sector 42, who arrived on Tuesday night with four other passengers, uncertainty has interrupted his dreams for his future, but he is glad to return home. He had to borrow money to pay for his flight from Singapore, where he was studying. Before reaching Chandigarh, he had to stay at a Delhi hotel for three nights, where a PGIMER doctor returning from Dhaka paid for his stay as he had no money even for a meal.

Upon reaching here, he said he was kept for day at Hotel Mountview in Sector 10 on Wednesday which charged ₹5,000 per night. However, it was waived off after intervention by Shashank Anand, the deputy inspector general of police (DIG, traffic) and nodal officer, before he was shifted to a more modest accommodation at Panchayat Bhawan in Sector 36.

“Amid the pandemic I see no future, but I am happy to come back to my mother and sister,” said the Attawa youth who lost his father some time ago. He had flown to Singapore in November last year for a six-month diploma course, but the pandemic changed everything.

Among the five who returned to Chandigarh were three other students from Singapore, including a class eight student studying in a boarding school here, who arrived in the first batch of returnees.

The Attawa youth said he had planned for an internship after studies and wished to stay there longer. “But due to corona, Singapore placed stringent restrictions, and that was that. To stay afloat I worked some odd jobs illegally but it wasn’t sufficient to pay even for accommodation,” he said.

“Gurdwaras proved saviours with their free meal service and I was elated when the Indian government announced they would fetch those who wanted to come back. But the flight ticket was almost double the usual fare, so I had to borrow money from a friend in Mohali. I requested the government officials to subsidise air-tickets for those who can’t afford it as there are several students like me facing such hardships on foreign shores,” he added

The PGIMER doctor who arrived in Chandigarh on Tuesday night was on a sabbatical in Dhaka for two years. After his visa expired in the first week of April, he tried every which way to come home. Although he was staying in safe place, he said the sense of uncertainty about when he would reach home brought on anxiety.

“I was worried about my family. My kids were alone at home most of the time as my wife, who is also a medical professional had to go on duty,” he said. Relieved to be back, he says he will have to wait out the quarantine period before he goes home. Even though he feels fine, but he will readily undergo the test and follow all protocols, he added.

Patience was a great virtue at such times, he said, adding the he appreciated efforts made by the government. “I could see government agencies working tirelessly to push a system in place for their handling the crisis,” he added.

As per UT officials, all foreign returnees will undergo medical tests and stay in quarantine for 14 days before they can go home.