Coronavirus: Hong Kong government contacts 2,900 residents stuck in India to pinpoint their locations amid pleas to airlift them home
- Immigration Department says it has collected personal information including the whereabouts of those stranded there
- Evacuation plea from former president of the India Association sent directly to Hong Kong leader
Officials say they have contacted thousands of Hongkongers stranded in India under the world's biggest Covid-19 lockdown to pinpoint their locations as a community leader urged the city’s chief executive to help bring them home.
With the South Asian nation in the grip of the health crisis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has extended the drastic restrictions initially imposed in March for three weeks until at least May 3.
Hong Kong’s Immigration Department said it was in touch with 2,900 Hong Kong residents trapped there and had collected personal information, including their whereabouts.
“The department will continue to contact other residents requesting assistance and will follow up the matter,” a spokesman for the authority said, adding it had also contacted 1,500 Hong Kong residents stuck in Pakistan.
Earlier, former president of the India Association Hong Kong, Mohan Chugani, said most of those stranded were Indian nationals, and that about 1,900 of them were permanent Hong Kong identity card holders, while nearly 220 had city passports.