Embassy reaches out to Indian students in Italy

MUMBAI: The Indian Embassy in Italy has got on touch with the Indian students who are stranded at Italian universities amid the coronavirus outbreak. This comes a day after HT reported about the plight of the students from Sapienza University of Rome who cannot leave the country because of expensive flights.

On March 5, HT reported how students are living in fear that post March 10, airlines will stop flying passengers out of Italy.

In response to the HT report, embassy tweeted tagging the HT reporter on their official account, “We have seen the report about concerns among Indian students in Sapienza University in Rome about Covid-19. Rome embassy has been in daily contact with Students Association in Sapienza and other University to ensure well-being and safety of our students.”

Gourav Dongre, a resident of Nagpur who is currently pursuing a postgraduate degree in mechanical engineering at the university, said, “After the news got published, we started getting calls from the embassy. So far, they weren’t even responding to our emails for help.

“But now, we have got an assurance from the embassy that they would evacuate students safely,” he added.

The embassy has asked students in Italy to fill up a form — Medical Certificate (Coronavirus Negative). An official at the embassy said, “Still there is no clear instruction from the Indian government about issuing the health certificate... As soon as we get the green signal from the government, we will carry forward with the instructions.”