COVID-19: 25,000 Indians set for repatriation from Bahrain

Cairo: Around 25,000 Indian workers in Bahrain have been listed for home return as part of an evacuation plan, an official source at the Indian embassy in Manama has said.

They will be repatriated in groups, the source told Bahraini newspaper Al Bilad.

In May, India launched a major-scale operation to evacuate its citizens stuck abroad due to global air travel suspension prompted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Over 8,000 Indians have already left Bahrain under the evacuation scheme, the embassy source was quoted as saying.

The Indian community in Bahrain is estimated at 450,000- to- 500,000 people. Indians constitute the biggest expatriate community in the country.

Some 270 Indians have died due to COVID-19 in the Gulf so far, according to media reports.

Several Gulf countries have unveiled plans to curb the numbers of migrant workers as their economies have been hit hard by the virus and a drop in oil prices.