bengal: Tricolour Is Passport To Safety For Bengal Students Crossing Border | Kolkata News – Times of India

0
144

[google-translator]

KOLKATA: For many students from Bengal fleeing Ukraine, the Tricolour proved more effective while crossing the border than official documents like passport and visa.
The Indian flag wrapped around them over winter clothes, the first batch of students from Bengal travelled through the night in freezing cold, including a 20km walk, to cross the Ukrainian border into Romania in the early hours of Saturday by private transport. There, they waited for evacuation flights to take them back to India.

Untitled design - 2022-02-27T063420.177

“The focus now is getting hold of the Tricolour,” said Sonarpur’s Pushpak Swarnakar, a fifth-year student at Ternopil National Medical University. “Since the flag is not available to all, many students are making their own out of clothes and paper and sticking them on cars while travelling to the border. We stuck the flag on our bus and carried the Tricolour or wore stickers on our chest as we started for the Romanian border on Saturday.”
The students from Bengal reached Romania via the Suceava border as part of a coordinated evacuation mission by the external affairs ministry and the Indian embassies in Ukraine and Romania.
Students who reached Romania said they finally felt a sense of relief after almost a week.
“We had started from our university at Ivano-Frankivsk around 8pm (Ukraine time) on Friday. We first took a bus and then, midway, divided up into smaller groups and took taxis that dropped us at a spot 20km from the border. From there, we walked in freezing conditions to reach the Suceava border around 5.30am,” said Neha Khan, a Durgapur resident and a third-year student at Ivano Frankivsk National Medical University.
Durgapur resident Zeenat Alam said the internet connection was weak on the other side of the border, as they were put in camps with thousands of other refugees and given food, water and blankets. With phone batteries running out, a hotel around 100m from the camp — The Frontier Hotel — opened their lobby and set up an extra charging point. “They gave us bread, fruit, water and juice along with blankets and pillows. We are yet to get the final schedule of our evacuation flights but we have been told to wait,” said Alam. Some groups reported that the local authorities had started to move them to school buildings and churches as the evening wore on, to combat the freezing temperatures.
“The situation is fast deteriorating,” said Anindya Sekhar Bhadra, a third-year student of National Pirogov Memorial Medical University in Vinnytsia. “Ukrainian drivers are unwilling to take us to the border, fearing attacks. We are arranging national flags and a self-driven car to travel to the Hungarian border on Sunday. A group of friends have already left and we are waiting for an update from them about the road condition.”

Source link

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here