Two Years After COVID Forced Them To Leave, China To Allow Some Indian Students To Return

In some good news for Indian students who had to leave their foreign education dream mid-way due to the COVID-19 outbreak, China announced plans to permit the return of “some" of them.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing here that “China attaches high importance to Indian students' concerns about returning to China for studies. We have shared with the Indian sides the procedures and experience of other countries' students returning to China”.

AFP/ File

Work has already started

“Actually, the work for Indian students' return has already been started. All that remains to be done is for the Indian side to provide the list of students who really need to come back to China,” he said.

According to the Indian Embassy in China, Beijing has allowed the return of students from India to its various universities on a "need-assessed basis".

The Embassy said that following the meeting of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on March 25, the Chinese side has expressed its willingness to consider facilitating the return of Indian students to China on a need-assessed basis.

AFP

Here is what the students should do

In order to facilitate this, the Indian Embassy intends to prepare a list of such students which will be shared with the Chinese side for their consideration.

The embassy has come up with a form and requested Indian students to fill it out citing their necessity.

Once the collated information is shared with the Chinese side, it would consult relevant Chinese departments and varsities to verify the list and indicate whether the identified students can travel to China to complete the course.

This coordination process would be carried out in a time-bound manner. The Chinese side has also conveyed that eligible students should unconditionally abide by COVID-19 prevention measures, and agree to bear all expenses for the same by themselves.

AFP

In recent months, China has been permitting students from some friendly countries like Pakistan, Thailand, Solomon Islands and recently Sri Lanka to return but remained silent about allowing Indian students as well as hundreds of family members of Indians working in China to travel back.

Indian students in China before COVID-19

There were more than 23,000 Indian students, mostly those pursuing medical and research courses in China, including in Wuhan, where the COVID-19 outbreak started.

In early 2020, the Chinese government had ordered a total lockdown in Wuhan, followed by other cities in the country, to stop the spread of COVID-19.

This had left the Indian nationals stranded there without food and water, amid the fear of getting infected.

MEA

The government had sent Air India and IAF special flights to Wuhan to bring the students back.

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