India's West Asia Evacuation: 67,000 Nationals Repatriated as Gulf Crisis Deepens
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar informed the Rajya Sabha that India has successfully repatriated approximately 67,000 nationals from West Asia since the outbreak of hostilities between Israel, the United States, and Iran on 28 February 2026.
The MEA established a dedicated control room and coordinated with Indian embassies and consulates across the Gulf to manage the crisis, facilitating border crossings from UAE to Oman and from Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain into Saudi Arabia.
Commercial and non-scheduled flights were approved wherever airspace partially reopened — on March 7 alone, 51 inbound flights by Indian carriers landed in India, followed by 49 on March 8 and 50 on March 9.
Indian students in Tehran were relocated away from the capital; Indian nationals in Iran for business were assisted in crossing into Armenia to return home.
Two Indian mariners were killed and one remained missing following attacks on merchant shipping in the region.
Jaishankar described Gulf tensions as "a matter of particular concern," as nearly one crore Indian citizens live and work across the Gulf, and their remittances account for a substantial share of India's inward flows.
India's Overseas Evacuation Operations: Historical Pattern
India has conducted over thirty complex evacuation operations over the past few decades, establishing a robust institutional capability for citizen protection abroad. These operations have evolved from ad-hoc responses into structured, doctrine-driven missions.
The current repatriation of 67,000 nationals is by far the largest single evacuation effort in India's history, dwarfing all previous operations in scale and reflecting the sheer size of the Gulf Indian diaspora.
Indian Diaspora in the Gulf: Economic and Strategic Stakes
Nearly one crore (approximately 9 million) Indian nationals reside and work in the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman. They represent the single largest concentration of Indian workers overseas.
Jaishankar explicitly flagged that the crisis is "a matter of particular concern" because livelihoods of nearly one crore Indians are at stake, underscoring why India mobilised at unprecedented scale.
Ministry of External Affairs: Consular and Crisis Management Mechanisms
The MEA is the nodal ministry for protection of Indian nationals abroad. It operates through a network of Missions (embassies) and Posts (consulates/high commissions) in over 190 countries.
The control room established during the West Asia crisis is a direct instantiation of MEA's consular crisis management architecture; the scale of operations — 50+ daily inbound flights — required real-time coordination across Civil Aviation, Defence, and External Affairs ministries.
India's West Asia Policy: Balancing Interests
India's approach to West Asian geopolitics is characterised by strategic autonomy: maintaining strong ties with Israel, the Arab Gulf states, Iran, and the United States simultaneously without joining any formal alliance bloc.
Jaishankar's cautious phrasing — calling it "a matter of particular concern" rather than taking sides — reflects India's calibrated West Asia policy, while the evacuation itself demonstrates India's commitment to citizen protection regardless of the political complexities of the conflict.
- 67,000 Indian nationals repatriated from West Asia as of March 9, 2026
- ~1 crore (9 million) Indian nationals live and work in the Gulf region
- ~$51 billion in annual remittances from Gulf-based Indians (approx. 38–40% of India's total)
- India has conducted 30+ overseas evacuation operations since independence
- Operation Kaveri (Sudan, 2023): ~3,000 Indians evacuated via air and sea
- Operation Ganga (Ukraine, 2022): ~22,500 Indians evacuated
- 2 Indian mariners killed in attacks on merchant shipping in the current crisis
- 50–51 inbound flights daily from Indian carriers during peak evacuation (March 7–9, 2026)
- India's crude oil import dependence: ~85% of domestic requirement; Gulf supplies >60%
- The Strait of Hormuz: handles approximately 20% of global oil trade