Indian Embassy Ready To Provide Emergency Assistance To All

The Indian embassy hosted an Open House session under the theme ‘Legal Assistance Schemes for Indians in Kuwait’, which was followed by a presentation conducted on the Embassy’s recent activities, which included the Legal Assistance Schemes for Indian nationals in Kuwait.

This was followed by an interactive session with the Community at the embassy premises on 17 February.

Indian Ambassador, H.E Sibi George, and other office-bearers of various associations, as well as media representatives, were present during the meeting. In his remarks to the attendees, Ambassador Sibi requests the Indian Community members, specifically the ones who have had a recent history of contact with any covid-19 positive patient and/or showing any symptoms to immediately visit the nearest health facility for appropriate medical consultation/check-up without any hesitation or delay.

He adds, “The Embassy is ready to provide any assistance including meeting the medical expenses for all emergency medical cases on a means tested basis. It is very important to do that before it is too late. Late action can cause serious difficulties.”

Highlighting a meeting he had with the Indian Community Support Group yesterday, he’ stated, “The Embassy and the ICSG is ready to provide all support to those in need. We are continuing our lunch for all program at the Embassy throughout the week, we continue to provide air tickets for all deserving cases and we continue to make travel arrangements for those who need a medical escort.”

The Ambassador added, “As part of our Vande Bharat Mission over One lakh eighty five thousand Indians have travelled back to India from Kuwait. The Mission is still operational. Please contact the Embassy or the ICSG or any of the associations registered with the Embassy for any requirements or support. You could also walk in and drop your requests for support from ICWF in the boxes kept at the Embassy and at our three passport offices.”

Underscoring the number of death cases of Indians in Kuwait registered with the Mission last year, Ambassador Sibi pointed out, “We have had 1279 death cases of Indians registered in 2020 as compared to 707 in 2019. That was 572 more cases than 2019. Death due to Covid 19 pandemic was 334 cases in 2020. The cases due to natural causes have also gone up to 786 in 2020 from 551 in 2019, an increase of 235.”

Noting that the situation is not looking very good this year, the Ambassdor went on to disclose that in January 2021 there were 101 death cases of Indians registered in the Mission against the 55 death cases in January 2020 and 63 death cases in January 2019.

He noted, “At the same time this number is smaller than the most difficult months of last year when we lost 288 Indians in July and 172 in August. My heartfelt condolences to the families of those who lost their family members. These are difficult times.”

Assuring the public that the embassy was ready to extend full support to those in need, he asserts, “Our ICSG group, our associations, our Indian Doctors Forum, other medical professionals groups are all ready to extend all support. There are also a lot of our volunteers and social workers ready to support. All staff members of the Embassy are available to support. Please reach out to us through our 24×7 helplines and through emails.

As I said before in this difficult circumstances when we live under the fear of pandemic, my main objective is to ensure that we continue the Consular Service at the Embassy without interruption. We should not have a situation whereby we end up closing down the Consular Service at the Embassy or at our passport offices. So we need to follow all Covid 19 guidelines and protocol during visit to Embassy.”

Pointing to the newly arrived vaccines to help contain the virus, Ambassador Sibi remarked, “At the same time, I would like to inform that two hundred thousand doses of Made in India vaccine Covishield vaccines have arrived in Kuwait on February 1. My colleagues from the Embassy were at the airport to receive the vaccine. This has helped the Ministry of Health to vaccinate many including many of our health workers from India.”

Adding, “This is the kind of partnership that we have been working with our friendly countries like Kuwait since the beginning of the pandemic. We will continue this partnership in the coming weeks. In this regard, I am happy to announce that on February 23 at we are organizing a special session here on combating Covid 19 pandemic where a team of senior doctors from Indian Doctors Forum will speak on the pandemic and ways and means to address the situation. I invite you to virtually join the session.”

Highlighting a major issue of Indians stranded in India and in transit places like Dubai, he stated, “We are in constant touch with authorities on their early return to Kuwait. But we are not sure when they could come to Kuwait. Our Mission in Dubai and Abu Dhabi are to extend all possible help to those stranded in Dubai. I am continuing my meetings with the Kuwaiti leadership to raise all issues of interest and concern to the community.”

The Indian embassy is organizing regular weekly Open House sessions under various themes to address the concerns of the Indian community in Kuwait. It has now been decided for the third Wednesday of every month at 3 pm.

The Open House is open to all Indian nationals in Kuwait. Those interested may register by sending their details including full name as in passport, passport number, Civil ID number and contact number and address in Kuwait, along with a summary of the issues likely to be raised in the open house, through an email to community.kuwait@mea.gov.in. Those registered will be intimated on the meeting ID and other details.

 

SOURCE  TIMESKUWAIT

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