India’s decision to export millions of coronavirus vaccine doses to Saudi Arabia ranked its vast ex-pat community, locked away by the kingdom’s months-long ban on flights that sparked tense diplomatic wrangling. The plight of Indian workers, who make up the kingdom’s largest expatriate community, highlights the turmoil caused by the tightening of coronavirus restrictions.

Last week, Saudi Arabia restricted section from 20 nations—from the adjoining United Arab Emirates to the United States and Britain—and stopped diversion occasions, as they multiplied to stem the spread of the infection. Yet, Indian laborers have been hard hit by just about a five-month flight ban that they say has taken their lives, partitioned families, and cost occupations and business contracts. Last September, Saudi Arabia shut departures from India, Brazil, and Argentina, avoiding a huge number of Indians bolted regarding the country.

The social media accounts of the Indian diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia were flooded with angry and desperate messages from the workers, many of whom questioned New Delhi’s decision to export the vaccine before the crisis was resolved. “India should not offer the vaccine to Saudi Arabia because (the kingdom) has barred Indian flights, endangering the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of workers.

The feeling was repeated by a youthful Indian designer who has been bolted out since he left the kingdom the previous summer to visit his family in the northern territory of Uttar Pradesh. “Day and night, we tweet to (specialists) asking for help, yet all India thinks often about is selling antibodies,” he told AFP, mentioning that his name is withheld.

Indian officials, however, are careful not to match the issues, as India – known as the World Pharmacy – is stepping up global shipments of the vaccine developed by the British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca to Oxford University as a form of “vaccine diplomacy”

The gesture of India not linking vaccines to the flight ban shows that the two countries are strategic partners and that the Saudis need to be considered in order to reduce the suffering of the Indian workforce and yet there has been no comforting signal from Saudi.

Source: The Economic Times