Media Release
Abu Dhabi, Jul 22: In a humanitarian gesture to help fellow citizens in distress, the first in the series of chartered flights arranged by Thumbay Group, UAE and the Bearys Cultural Forum (BCF) Trust, Mangaluru to repatriate stranded Kannadigas in the UAE took off in the wee hours of July 21 from Ras Al Khaimah International Airport. The flight was fully occupied, with 186 passengers, all of them desperate to fly back to India for various reasons.
The initiative was conceived and implemented under the leadership of Dr Thumbay Moideen - founder president of Thumbay Group and founder patron of BCF and Dr B K Yusuf, the president of BCF. The flight was organized on a purely charitable basis, with all the necessary steps and precautions in place to ensure the safety and comfort of the passengers. Thumbay Group assigned its fleet of buses to transport the passengers free of charge from their residences in Dubai, Sharjah and Ajman to the airport. The organizers also provided free meals and refreshments to the passengers, in addition to PPE kits and face-shields which were distributed free of charge.
The passengers on the first flight included many elderly individuals, people with serious illnesses like heart-related health issues and diabetes, pregnant ladies and little children as well as people who had lost their jobs and those with expired visas. Dr B K Yusuf – BCF president, Dr Kaup Mohammed - BCF general secretary, other office bearers of BCF, as well as Thumbay Group’s representatives Farhad C – director of the hospitality division of Thumbay Group and engineer Farwaz P C – COO of the construction division were present at the airport to see off the first group of passengers.
Commenting on the initiative, Dr Thumbay Moideen said, “This joint initiative of Thumbay group and BCF is to support our fellow Kannadigas desperate to fly back home. We are happy that we have been able to reach out to many of them, to help them fly home to their families. We thank the governments of the UAE and India and the Indian Consulate, Dubai, for their support in making this happen. In the coming days, many more stranded Kannadigas would be repatriated under this joint initiative.”
Dr B K Yusuf thanked Dr Thumbay Moideen, the office-bearers and members of BCF for their efforts to make the initiative a success. “We are proud that this initiative has brought relief to many Kannadigas and their families today. BCF is grateful to Thumbay Group for its support and partnership for all our humanitarian programmes for the support of the needy.”
Dr Kaup Mohammed said that it was a matter of pride that the much-awaited Thumbay-BCF repatriation flight had been carried out successfully. “Measures have been taken to ensure the safety of the flight and its passengers throughout the journey,” he said. He also thanked all the social organizations including Bhatkal Jamath, BCCI, BWF, KCF, DKSC, Kodagu Kannadigas, Kannadiga Help Line, Dubai Konkans and KSS for their support. He specially thanked Syed Hassan Razeen, the owner of ARISTOCRAT Travels for his support in the ticketing, boarding and related processes. On behalf of Milano Optics Group and Maxcare, free gift hampers were distributed to select passengers.
The passengers were received at Mangalore airport under the leadership of Mumtaz Ali - patron of BCF and other distinguished personalities of Mangaluru including Moidin Bava- former MLA, U T Ifthikhar, S M R Rashid- president of BCCI central committee and many others. The passengers were transferred to the hotels where they had registered for the mandatory quarantine.
The second flight under this joint initiative is scheduled to take-off from Ras Al Khaimah airport to Mangaluru on July 24. A few more similar repatriation flights are to soon follow, in the coming weeks.