Afghan students send SOS to Indian institutes

MUMBAI: Afghan students enrolled at Indian institutes are seeking permission to return to campus, with many institutes willing to allow them in. As Afghanistan faces mass exodus of its citizens because of the Taliban takeover, worried students have contacted institutes to expedite paperwork for visas.
On Saturday, in a social media post, IIT-Bombay director Subhasis Chaudhuri said, “A few Afghan students enrolled in the masters programme were participating in online classes from home. But due to the rapidly deteriorating condition in their homeland, they wanted to move out of their country and join campus hostels. Although we have approved their request to come to the campus as a special case, we are not sure how late it is for them to pursue their dreams…”
Eleven Afghan students are enrolled in the masters programme at the institute, and two are already on the campus. “Since these students are sponsored by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), their Mumbai office is working closely with the Indian embassy in Kabul to issue visas,” said an IIT-B official.
Dean (alumni and international relations at IIT-Delhi), Naveen Garg, said they have been getting similar requests from students. "The institute has made a provision for these students to return to the campus. But a lot depends on bureaucratic hurdles they may face now. For instance, a student wrote to us, saying he could not get his visa processed due to long queues at the embassy office,” said Garg. Of the 17 Afghan students, none is on the campus right now, and three have indicated that they would be coming soon, said the official.
The administration at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, is also looking into the requests made by Afghan students.
A government official said one will have to wait and watch the situation developing in Afghanistan. Many students come to India to pursue higher studies under the ICCR's scholarship programmes. An IIT professor said, “Even if these students manage to get their visas, we do not know if flights will be allowed."