NEW DELHI: Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan on Sunday said that India has not received any official message from the UAE government seeking immediate repatriation of Indian nationals working in the country. The minister was responding to certain reports which claimed that the UAE government is considering several options to restructure its cooperation and labour relations with countries refusing to receive their nationals working in the UAE.

According to the reports, the UAE was being forced to take strict actions after several countries refused to respond to its request to evacuate their citizens from the country due to the coronavirus crisis.

According to Muraleedharan, if a country decides to take such an action, it will be communicated first to the embassies of respective nations. "Upon hearing the news, the Ministry of External Affairs(MEA) had contacted a high official who is in charge of the gulf nations and the Indian embassy in the UAE. So far, neither the MEA nor the Indian embassy has received any such message from the UAE government," he said.

"We had also contacted certain people within the UAE government. All of them maintained that the UAE enjoys warm relation with India." the minister added.