Avneet Kaur
Jalandhar, February 28
On Saturday, a group of 100 students stuck at the Vinnytsia National Medical University hired a bus with the help of Indian immigration consultants and local contractors to travel to the Romania border with the hope that they’ll soon return home. But little did they know that the problems at the border were worse than they imagined.
Help appeal
The Indian Govt must intervene and speed up evacuation as the Ukrainian military isn’t cooperating with us. Even, the border authorities aren’t treating us well. Ravinder Singh, stranded student
“The Indian Embassy advisories say students must reach nearby borders as all arrangements were put in place for evacuation but in reality, the situation is worse than at the Metro stations and bunkers,” said Sumit Nagrath, an
MBBS student at Vinnytsia National Medical University, who hails from Jalandhar.
Over WhatsApp call with The Tribune, Sumit said there were around 50 students from Punjab among 1,500 Indians stranded at the Romania border since the past three or four days amid freezing cold, but no one from our embassy is there to help them with the evacuation process. “We are making all efforts to contact them, but in vain as they are not responding to our calls or messages,” he added.
Sumit said Ukrainian people and students from other countries were given a free passage to cross the border, but they were asked to wait.
“We have been out in the biting cold for the past two nights. We are running out of food and water but no one is helping us. Where should we go?” said another student Ravinder Singh of Jalandhar, pursuing MBBS in Vinnytsia, Ukraine. He said the situation at the borders was turning from bad to worse; we are lying on roads and burning trash to light a bonfire to save ourselves from the nail-biting cold.
Like Sumit and Ravinder, the other students who hail from Kapurthala, Shahkot and Nawanshahr also narrated a similar ordeal and said there’s no arrangement of food, water or even a tent by the Indian Embassy at the Romania and Poland borders.
Sarabjit Kaur, another stranded student from Nawanshahr, said she along with her four friends from UP and Gujarat made it to the Poland border on Sunday. However, once they arrived there, they found themselves among thousands who
were stranded. “We are not getting any help or information. The embassy is not picking up calls. We request the Indian Government to please intervene and get us out of here,” she added.
No food, water or safe passage for Indians, rue pupils
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