Lockdown, financial crunch prolongs Afghan students’ return home from Kota

Many Afghan students, studying in Rajasthan’s Kota, are stranded in India, partially due to the Covid-19 lockdown and also due to financial crunch.

Over the past few weeks, even as hundreds of students studying in coaching institutes in Rajasthan’s Kota have returned to their states during the nationwide lockdown, the wait is getting longer for over a dozen students from Afghanistan of a private university in the city.

These students are still stranded in India due to the lockdown imposed in the wake of Covid-19 outbreak and financial crunch. Many have been unable to board the special flights being organised by the Afghanistan government for its citizens. The Afghan embassy in India is providing information about these paid flights and the next ones out of New Delhi are scheduled for May 21 and 23.

Twenty three-year-old Kabul resident Saedullah is BA first year student of English Literature at Kota’s Career Point University. He is among the Afghan students trying to return home.

“We approached the district administration of Kota for facilitating our return to Afghanistan and. But we cannot travel to Delhi (to board flight for Afghanistan) on train since we do not have Aadhaar cards. So, the administration told us to go to Delhi through car or taxi”, he said.

But owing to the high cab fares which most Afghan students cannot afford and fund crunch as banks in Afghanistan are closed due to lockdown, they are forced to stay in India, he said.

“If we had got permission to go to Delhi on train, then we could have booked special flights on May 21 and 23. But now we have learnt that there aren’t any seats left, so we have dropped the idea to return to our home country for the time being”, he said.

“The Afghanistation ambassador has shared a message on the official portal that efforts are being made for additional flights in the first week of June, so we will try to board those special flights then”, he added.

 

Another Afghan student, 20-year-old Shahgul Yakub, pursuing a BA degree, is also disappointed at not being able to go back home.

“I am disappointed that we are not able to return to our homes due to lack of seats in special flights to Afghanistan. We want to go to our homes but unfortunately the situation is such that we are not able to return to our homes”, she said.

Yakub said that there are around two dozen Afghan students in Kota and many among them do not want to return home right now as they will have to again come back to Kota to continue their studies.

When asked about the issue of Afghan students, Kota District Collector Om Kasera said that as per rules, only Indian citizens are allowed to travel in trains.

“We have allowed Afghan students to leave for Delhi through car or taxi but they cannot be sent through trains due to norms as only Indian citizens are allowed to travel in the trains”.

However, Kasera said “If they do not want to travel in car or taxi, we can send them to Delhi through buses”.