From Kochi to Djibouti on a rescue mission

On a mission to evacuate Indians stranded in the war-torn Yemen, two passenger ships left Kochi this morning for the port of Djibouti in the Republic of Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.

The ships, which together can accommodate over 1,200 people, are expected to reach the port of Djibouti that lies across the port of Aden in Yemen in a week. The two ships carry food supplies and medicines and have a team of doctors and nurses on board as well. The evacuation mission is led by the Indian Navy.

The Central Government took the decision to send the motor vessels (m.v.) on Sunday and m.v. Kavaratti and m.v. Coral, both operating regular passenger services between Kochi and the Lakshadweep islands were chosen.

The authorities had called back m.v. Kavaratti mid-sea, causing anger and inconvenience to more than 600 passengers. The ship had left Kochi in the afternoon with the islands-bound passengers. These passengers would now be ferried by smaller vessels soon.

The ships, when they reach the destination are likely to be given protection by Indian Navy’s patrol vessels. The evacuees are likely to be flown from the Yemeni port city of Aden to Djibouti before being taken onboard the ships.

The Yemeni coast is just 30 km across the Bab-el-Mandeb strait from Djibouti. The strait links Red Sea to Indian Ocean and has been an important maritime area for thousands of years.

The two ships are in addition to the aircraft that would be flown several times to evacuate Indian nationals back to the country. Saudi Arabia, which leads the 10-nation alliance that has launched the attack on Yemen, has given India permission to fly Indian aircraft for three hours daily. The Navy has sent two frigates from Mumbai to help in the evacuation mission. These would reach the Gulf of Aden ahead of the two passenger ships. INS Sumitra, currently patrolling the Gulf of Aden, might also join in.

There are an estimated 3,000 Keralites working in Yemen and a large number of them are employed as nurses. Those who called their homes reportedly said their employers were refusing to return their passports and that many nurses had not received salaries for three months. Kerala Government’s Department of Non-Resident Keralite Affairs (Norka) has urged the nurses to return home as early as possible without waiting for the salaries. The Indian embassy would arrange their travel documents. Norka would pay the airfare to get them back to Kerala once they landed in Mumbai or Delhi by air.

For the authorities in Kerala, the experience of evacuating Kerala nurses from Iraq and Libya last year has come in handy for coming to the rescue of those stranded in Yemen.