Over 500 Yemeni students stranded because of flights unavailability

By Lokmat English Desk | Published: July 27, 2021 07:55 PM2021-07-27T19:55:01+5:302021-07-27T19:55:01+5:30

By Mehboob Inamdar Aurangabad, July 27: Around 500 Yemenis students, including 30 from the city, were stranded in ...

Over 500 Yemeni students stranded because of flights unavailability | Over 500 Yemeni students stranded because of flights unavailability

Over 500 Yemeni students stranded because of flights unavailability

By Mehboob Inamdar

Aurangabad, July 27:

Around 500 Yemenis students, including 30 from the city, were stranded in the country because of the unavailability of international flights in the Covid situation.

According to sources, thousands of international students arrive in India every year for higher education in universities and colleges. They have to leave the country on completion of the course.

Nearly 1100 Yemeni students completed their graduate, postgraduate and Ph D research recently and are ready to return to their country.

The Embassy of Yemen (Delhi) and Consulate General of Yemen (Mumbai) started online registration a few weeks ago for those who wish to return to the country. More than 550 students registered initially.

The arrangement of carrying them in four flights was made. Gradually, the number of candidates for returning home country surpassed the figure of 1100. However, 577 students returned to their country through four flights. The last flight took off from India on July 24. There are still over 500 students stranded in different universities of the country.

Box

Talking to this newspaper, some of the stranded students from the city said that they had registered in the beginning for returning to their country but were not given seats in the flights. They said that those who had good relations with the Embassy and Consulate General officers were given preference for seats in the flights.

“Our visa will expire soon. There may come a residential permission problem. Also, we do not have much money for survival now. If the flight is not arranged, life will become more difficult for us,” they added.

Box

The sources Consulate General and Embassy said that the preference was given while taking students back to Yemen on health grounds and visa expiry date.

“The flights were arranged with the strength of registered candidates in the beginning. The number of students increased when the first flight took off,” the sources said.

On this, the students felt that the preference was not given on the basis of the registration sequence.

Box

The process of arranging flights for stranded students requires permission from the Ministry of Home Affairs. It will take three to four weeks time to complete the correspondence between the Governments of both the countries for the arrangement of new flights. The students will remain stranded till then.

Open in app