Indians onboard quarantined cruise-liner will be back soon: Envoy

The Indian Embassy in Japan is making arrangements to bring back Indian sailors, including crew members from Goa, who are currently stranded onboard the cruise-liner Diamond Princess off the Japanese coast in view of the coronavirus scare, Indian Ambassador to Japan Sanjay Kumar Varma said on Wednesday.

Varma, in a communication to Narendra Sawaikar, Commissioner for NRI (non-resident Indian) Affairs in Goa, also said that the 135 odd Indian sailors onboard the cruise-liner would return back to India soon.

"We have been issuing regular informative messages on our Twitter handle as well as our Facebook page. May I request to refer to them for timely updates. Please rest assured that the arrangements for bringing them back to India is being made and very soon they will be in their motherland," Varma said in his letter to Sawaikar.

Sawaikar looks after the affairs of the sizeable Goan expatriate community. His office serves as a liaising agency between them and the state government.

The Goa NRI Commissioner had on Tuesday written to the Indian Embassy in Japan about the anxiety of the parents of Goan sailors onboard the Diamond Princess, a British-registered cruise ship, which is operated by Princess Cruises.