24 tourists return home from Dubai

Berhampur/Rourkela: Altogether 24 tourists from Odisha, 22 of them from silk city, who were stranded in Dubai for four days returned home safely on Saturday night, bringing relief to their anxious families.

The tourists from eight families and mostly senior citizens had gone to Gulf countries on Feb 25 on a six-day visit and were scheduled to fly back on March 2. They, however, were stuck in Dubai due to closure of the airspace after the air strikes.

“We left from the war-torn country on Friday night through a special charter flight and landed in Mumbai the day after. We reached Berhampur via Bhubaneswar on Saturday night safely,” said K Sibaji Rao (70), a member of the group. He said as the Dubai airport closed following the flare-up, their special flight took up from Ras AL Khaimah.

Rao, a retired Central govt employee who visited Dubai for the first time with his wife, is now back with a bitter experience. “Though we have not seen any missile attack in our localities, we felt insecure and uncertain,” he said.

Laxmi Narayan Patnaik (68) a retired lecturer, who was in the group said they had heard the sound and smoke some kilometres away from her hostel. Patnaik went to Dubai with his wife Harapriya, a retired principal. “Though the situation in Dubai is normal, we were very tense due to frequent sirens and closure of the airports,” the couple said. “We thank God to bring us back to our country,” said Mohani, another traveller.

“Despite reports of the attack and counter attacks on television, the situation in Dubai was normal. Markets were open, traffic was usual. it did not feel like a war zone. Amid the conflict, we visited Abu Dhabi on March 4 by road,” said Patnaik. Abu Dhabi too was normal. “When we returned from Abu Dhabi, we received an alert message,” he added.

While we were stranded in the hostel, Odia people settled in Dubai extended their helping hand and coordinated with the embassy for our safe return and offered food. Before boarding the special flight, an Odia man in Dubai arranged to cook for us, said Rao.

Members of Emirates Odia Parivar (EOP) in the UAE arranged the travel of 24 stranded Odias in Dubai, from Ras Al Khaimah to Mumbai on Friday night. After the Indian People’s Forum (IPF) informed EOP about the tourists, the EOP members visited them at their hotel on March 6 to assess their needs and provide medicines and moral support.