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Indian expats who travelled back home, many because of family emergencies, said they were relieved that flights would resume soon and allow them to return to their homes and jobs in the UAE.
On Tuesday, the UAE announced it would ease travel restrictions from six countries on its flight ban list to allow some residents, who are stranded abroad, to fly back to the Emirates.
The government said all vaccinated individuals and unvaccinated people in certain job categories, could seek permission to return from August 5.
The decision includes people who are in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Nigeria and Uganda.
People have been here for months. We have nearly 76 teachers and staff members from Delhi Private School Dubai stuck in India
Kanak Raju
Kanak Raju, a senior teacher in secondary school at Delhi Private School Dubai, travelled to Chennai in July. He was concerned about not being able to return to the UAE but had to travel because of a family emergency.
"My brother died last year and I had to return home for some important rituals. I knew it would be difficult to travel back but this was something I could not postpone," Mr Raju said.
The UAE government’s announcement on Tuesday means Mr Raju and his family can return to the Emirates. They are scheduled to fly on August 22.
"People have been stuck here for months,” he said.
"There are some pupils and nearly 76 teachers and staff members from our school stuck in India.”
Mr Raju travelled to Chennai with his wife and daughters, who are 13 and 11.
Many residents travelled to India because they had not seen their parents and family since the beginning of the pandemic.
Saroja Manoheran is looking forward to returning to Dubai from Sri Lanka.
She had flown to Sri Lanka in May as her husband required urgent bypass surgery.
As her husband's health improved, she anxiously awaited news on when flight restrictions would be eased.
"By now 80 days have passed and finally we got the good news that flights to Dubai are back," she said.
"On Thursday I will book my ticket and hopefully will soon be in sunny Dubai."
Sunita Razdan, vice-principal of academics at Delhi Private School Dubai, travelled to Pune in July to see her ill mother-in-law. Ms Razdan’s father-in-law died in February.
"I was worried about not being able to come back to Dubai but my husband wanted us to visit his mother, and he said we would find a way to return to the UAE," she said.
"I am glad the news came at the right time as schools start in a few weeks.
"I haven't applied for the ICA approval. I hope there are no glitches in the system and it comes through."
I am glad the news came at the right time as schools start in a few weeks.
Sunita Razdan
Ms Razdan has received both doses of the Sinopharm vaccine and one booster of Pfizer and will be able to travel back to the Emirates.
Travellers must have valid UAE residency and proof of being fully vaccinated.
Ms Razdan said she is not worried about the high fares because her return ticket was booked a long way in advance.
She hopes to travel back to the Emirates on August 20 before the beginning of the new academic term.
On racial profiling at airports
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Abu Dhabi traffic facts
Drivers in Abu Dhabi spend 10 per cent longer in congested conditions than they would on a free-flowing road
The highest volume of traffic on the roads is found between 7am and 8am on a Sunday.
Travelling before 7am on a Sunday could save up to four hours per year on a 30-minute commute.
The day was the least congestion in Abu Dhabi in 2019 was Tuesday, August 13.
The highest levels of traffic were found on Sunday, November 10.
Drivers in Abu Dhabi lost 41 hours spent in traffic jams in rush hour during 2019
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
