Will Korea restrict entry of Indians after travelers from Pakistan, Bangladesh banned? Korean embassy says NO.

Sanjeev K Ahuja On Jun 24, 2020

On June 21, about 200 Indians boarded Asiana Airlines flight to fly from New Delhi to Incheon.

NEW DELHI: South Korean government’s decision to strengthen visa and entry restrictions from Tuesday for foreigners from Pakistan and Bangladesh – the countries recently reported a surge in coronavirus cases, has left Indian nationals waiting to return to Korea in a tizzy.

Trying hard to arrange charter flights on their own from India to Korea, hundreds of Indian professionals, scholars, and students who have been stuck in India since March when the lockdown was proclaimed, these Indians are leading sleepless nights.

Speculations are ripe amongst the Indian community that India could be the next country to be banned by the Korean government as the graph of COVID-19 positive cases is surging in India too. And if this happens, a number of Indian professionals would lose their jobs, and students their classes for not reporting to their respective institutions in time.

The decision of the Korean government to suspend visas and flights from Pakistan and Bangladesh came on Sunday amid a surge in imported coronavirus cases from the two countries.

However, the embassy of the Republic of Korea (ROK) in New Delhi has clarified that there was nothing to worry about for the Indian nationals as there was no intention of the Korean government to take such a drastic step to check the spread of imported coronavirus cases in its country.

Setting aside the speculations about Korea closing its doors for Indian nationals,

Yoo Chang-Ho Minister-Counselor for Political Affairs, Korean Embassy to India, said, “Korea and India are looking to get economic cooperation back on track as soon as possible. This is why both are allowing business communities to get back to each other’s countries so that the economies can start moving again.”

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On Monday, the figures released by the Korea Centre for Disease Control and Prevention brought the national coronavirus caseload to 12,438 cases, including 280 deaths.

For the past two weeks, Korea has been reporting 40 to 50 new cases per day as the country eased social distancing norms during that time.

Korea has noticed an increase in imported cases, mostly from passengers arriving from southwest Asian countries. This is what has prompted the Korean government to get strict against issuing visas for travelers from Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The Korean Health Minister Park Neung-hoo recently said in a press conference that Korea experienced a surge in the number of foreign travelers in April from 1000 per day to 1,300 in June.

The minister said that those imported cases were from the countries that reported widespread infections, and this had stressed the country’s quarantine and treatment infrastructure.

It is due to the entry ban rumors the Indian nationals stuck in India since March are running from pillar to get to get their visas renewed and are ready to shelve any amount to get back to Korea and join work or resume studies.

Vibhu Jain, the marketing head (Asia) with a life sciences MNC in Korea, who is instrumental in helping the Indian professionals get back to Korea, clarified that though it was a bit cumbersome and tardy as well as time taking process dealing with the authorities and private airline companies, there was no problem in getting the things done.

“We are hopeful of getting a green nod for July 3 and 10 flights from India to Korea. We are almost on the verge of finalizing flight schedules,” he added.

On June 20, about 200 Indian professionals and students boarded Asiana Airlines flight to fly from New Delhi to Incheon in Korea.

People like Lailesh Kumar who is the representative of the students there is working hard to get flights arranged for the Indian student’s community.

“We are looking forward to bringing the remaining Indian friends in future in which 100 might be able to come on July 3 from Bangalore. We hope for the good. Discussion and processing regarding July 10 flight is going on,” said Sayan Dutta Gupta who is also helping the Indians in the whole initiative under which about 600 Indian nationals were brought from India to Korea since May 31.

These people are forced to be on their own as the Indian government has refused to fly more aircraft between the two countries under Vande Bharat Mission.