AL-MUKALLA: Hamoud Hassan was supposed to have left India in mid-March with his sick brother after doctors told him that the surgeries his sibling needed would cost $54,000.
“We decided to leave India to collect the money, spend Ramadan with our families and return,” he told Arab News. “Also, my brother’s health improved after taking drugs.”
But their plan to leave never got off the ground after Yemen last month halted flights in and out of the country to stop the spread of coronavirus. The decision left thousands of Yemenis stuck in India, Egypt, Jordan, and other countries. Hassan lives in Saudi Arabia, while his brother lives in Yemen. Both want to leave India.
The abandoned nationals have appealed to their government to arrange repatriation flights as they are running out of money and food. “Our only demand is returning home,” said Hassan. “Do they want us to die here? We do not mind staying in quarantine in the desert at home. I also want to go back to my family in Saudi Arabia.”
A crumbling health system in war-torn Yemen led thousands of its citizens to seek treatment overseas. But some have been forced into borrowing money from friends and relatives while abroad after spending what they had on food and healthcare.
“We moved to a new, cheaper flat and borrowed $20 from one person and another $50 from another,” Mutaher Hassan, a Yemeni patient who traveled with three others to Egypt last year for a liver transplant, told Arab News. “All hospitals here have been closed due to the disease. My mother and brother want to return home very soon. We spend our time praying, eating and sleeping.”
He urged the government to evacuate them quickly as his friends in Egypt and relatives in Yemen and Saudi Arabia had stopped funding him. “Everyone is suffering from financial problems, even my relatives in Saudi Arabia,” he added.
Yemen also closed land crossings with Saudi Arabia and Oman, leaving hundreds of Umrah pilgrims in the Kingdom. Yemen recorded its first case of coronavirus on April 10, and health officials warned that large repatriations would lead to the spread of the disease amid chronic shortages of medical supplies and quarantine centers.
Omer Hassan, who traveled with his mother to the UAE in February for treatment, was planning to fly back to Yemen to prepare for his wedding. “I see myself much luckier than many stranded patients in Egypt and other places since at least I live here with relatives,” he told Arab News from Abu Dhabi. “But I want to go home to furnish my house.”
Another Yemeni man, called Omer, was in Egypt and said that he stayed indoors most of the time. “I booked a flight after recovering from surgery,” he told Arab News. “Now, I have to limit my errands in order not to spend money.”
Several Yemenis stuck in Egypt and India who spoke to Arab News said they preferred being quarantined in Yemen rather than living with no money or help abroad.
Yemen’s internationally-recognized government is considering several options to address the problem, such as sending urgent financial assistance or asking them to bring medical reports showing they were not infected with coronavirus.
“We are under huge pressure to address this issue,” a senior government official told Arab News on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters. “One of the options is wiring $2 million to the stranded people.” He added that the number of stranded Yemenis was around 10,000. “We do not want the disease to spread in Yemen. At the moment we prefer sending the money before moving to the other options.”
The Yemeni government might also ask host countries to test Yemenis and supply them with a medical report. Those who test negative would be allowed to return. Buses would ferry them from airports to their homes, the Yemeni government official said.
But some Yemeni provinces that host functioning airports, such as Hadramout and Aden, reject the idea of repatriating Yemenis before putting them in quarantine, fearing the rapid spread of coronavirus. “It is true that there is a strong opposition to the idea of bringing back the stranded people soon,” the official said.
“We do not even want to live in a hotel in India,” Hamoud Hassan said. “The government should be using the money for buying fuel for the planes that would carry us. $200 would not solve our problems.”
