About 280 to 300 Indian students, who are stranded in Italy, are waiting for the Indian government to send flights to take them back home. “The situation here is getting worse. Over 300 people have died on Wednesday alone,” said a desperate G Chaitanya Kumar, a native of Andhra Pradesh and a first-year masters student from Rome.
He, along with the other students, had booked their flight tickets for March 11 with Air India airlines. However, on reaching the airport, they were not issued the boarding passes as the flight got cancelled. Many stayed back in the airport for three days and later managed to find temporary shared lodgings as they were asked to vacate their university hostels. “But this won’t be a safe option for long,” said Chaitanya.
The Indian government’s decision on March 5, to allow only those who have a medical clearance certificate declaring them as COVID-19 negative, further put the students under duress, as it gave them very little time to get tested.
According to the students stranded in Italy, the only way to get tested in Italy is through the government hospitals that are already running over capacity. “For the Italian government hospitals, issuing us medical clearance certificates is not a priority right now. They are trying to save the lives of their people. When we ask them to test us, they say the Indian government should be testing us and not them,” he told TNM.
As of Thursday, Al Jazeera reported that Italy has registered 345 coronavirus deaths in the last 24 hours alone. The country has recorded over 35,713 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with more than 4,000 having successfully recovered.
Krishnamurthy, a parent from Hyderabad in Telangana, says his daughter Mounika was also set to return on March 11. “After the (Air India) flight got cancelled, the Indian government flew in doctors from India and tested them (from March 13 to 15) but not everyone got the test results. Why can’t the Indian government bring the children back first, quarantine them for the stipulated number of days,” said the father, adding, “Bring them home first.”
According to Chaitanya, about 129 students got their test results, which came out negative for the virus. Of these, a batch of 10 to 15 students took an Ethiopian Airlines flight back to India and reached Mumbai on Thursday. “That was the last flight back to India. They were able to spend Rs 64,000 for a flight ticket. We paid Rs 25,000 for the Air India flight ticket, which got cancelled. They did not even refund for the cancelled flight,” he added.
He said that the Indian Embassy in Italy was responsive the first few days. They roped in non-government organisations to help us with food and accommodation. “Now, we have been informed that they received our test results but are just not telling us what it says,” he added.
The students have been trying to reach out to the Indian government through a Member of Parliament. “One Andhra Pradesh Lok Sabha MP said he would talk to the External Affairs Minister but we have not heard from him yet,” said Chaitanya.
“If Sushma Swaraj (late Indian External Affairs Minister) was there, she would not have abandoned us here,” said Chaitanya as he broke down, adding, “Bring us back home.”
The Indian government is, meanwhile, sending back Indian students stranded in Malaysia.