400 Indian passengers stranded at Belgrade, Abhishek Jagini comes to aid

Inview of the prevalent pandemic several countries have imposed restrictions on International passengers. In the same lines Canada which has extended its travel ban twice in the last two months has a policy of third country quarantine or Corona negative test report. This has made traveling to Canada complicated and difficult than any of the popularly traveled location across the globe.

People traveling to Canada from different countries are forced to look for a transit stay which has simpler Covid rules, wherein they Quarantine or get a negative RCPCR test report and qualify to enter Canada.

Several Indians who travelled to India recently have been in India have had to stay back until lockdown 2.0 was lifted. Though India has recovered from the wave and returned to normalcy soon, travel ban on international passengers and other rules closed the way into Canada, including for those in India.

Serbia is one nation in the Europe with simple travel rules and was a gateway as a transit to travel to Canada. To make most of the opportunity over 400 passengers including Indians and NRIs planning to travel to Canada chose to go via Belgrade and Frankfurt which offer connecting flights.

But to their astonishment, when they landed at the Nikola Tesla Airport at Belgrade in the early hours of Monday the country had by then updated it's transit rules to a mandatory 7 day quarantine. The passengers who got stranded at Belgrade were shocked and panicking with no resort.

One of the Indian Canadians Deepak Kumar traveling to Toronto got in touch with Telangana based BJP leader Abhishek Jagini. Abhishek Jagini who got all the details about the issue, took it to the notice of External Affairs Minister's office, Indian Embassy in Serbia and Serbian Embassy in India. Also he appraised known diplomats to take up the issue so that those stranded get help on time and don't have to suffer ticket cancellations and other travel issues.

The Indian Embassy officials in Belgrade upon receiving the message have on war footing arranged all possible assistance to the stranded passengers. Also the issue of RCPCR test and mandatory quarantine was sorted and makeshift testing booths were arranged for the passengers. The passengers can now continue their journey as planned without any issues despite the new regulations.

Deepak Kumar said,"I got in touch with Abhishek Jagini through a mutual contact, upon reaching out to him, he responded positively, got all the details from us, kept in constant touch with us until the problem was resolved and the Indian Embassy officials met as at the Airport and took over."

Abhishek Jagini, BJP leader, said, "The travelers who were in transit are currently able to get the assistance of the Indian Embassy officials and Serbian authorities, I would suggest those planning to travel International, to kindly track the website of Indian Embassy of those respective countries to get latest updates about travel related rules and regulations."