WE ARE SAFE IN ROMANIA – LISWATI

MBABANE – “We are safe and we were able to get accommodation and food in Romania.”

This was said by a student from Eswatini, who successfully made it into Romania on Saturday after travelling for several hours from Ukraine. When asked about their plans to return home, the student, who preferred to remain anonymous, said the Eswatini government had told them that it would assist them with funds for flight tickets. He said they were informed that parents needed to buy the tickets and government would then refund them when the students got to Eswatini. “We still have a lot of questions about what will happen if our parents do not have the money right now. We are still waiting for responses from our representatives about the plan going forward,” the student said said.

 Tickets

She said at the moment, they were trying their best to get as much rest as possible following that they would have to take COVID-19 tests. She said it would also be selfish for parents who could afford the plane tickets to expect government to pay for them as government had already done a lot for them so far. “The minister has worked so much, which we greatly appreciate. She is still working tirelessly to get all of us together, which is not easy to do,” she added. In her twitter page, one of the students, Vukile Dlamini, said parents at home and all over the world were concerned and wondered how they were. “We are traumatised physiologically, emotionally and physically. We have finally crossed over to the Romanian border but it was very traumatic. After we left our city, we drove for hours,” she said. In an interview with a student currently studying in Cyprus, which is 1 484 kilometres from Ukraine, he said they were still safe and there was no reason to panic and head back home yet. “Everything is still normal and we hope the situation does not escalate and affect us as well,” he said.

Ashamed

In a recent report on Sky News, some of the Russian nationals said they were ashamed to be Russian as they felt the invasion was unnecessary. “We pray and hope the Ukraine people will one day forgive us,” said the Russian citizen. According to the ‘Study In Ukraine’ website, a large number of students study in Ukraine because it is cheaper to pursue medical education there. It is also that the degrees obtained in Ukraine are recognised across the world, including by the World Health Organisation (WHO), European Council and other global bodies. Furthermore, there are chances of permanent residence and settlement in Europe after completion of the study programme in Ukraine. This reporter also tried to reach out to some of the students who according to their colleagues were still in Ukraine, but none of them had responded at the time this article went to print yesterday. In a previous report, some of the students had mentioned that the network had been slow, which could be a contributing factor for the delayed responses. Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Thuli Dladla said they were still working on arrangements for plane tickets, adding that no child would be left behind. “Government will make sure that all the children who want to come back home do so without fail,” said the minister.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: