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Over 2,500 Afghan students await visas to return to India
With five months since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, there are over 2,500 Afghan students enrolled in Indian institutes awaiting the issuance of visas so they can return to India.
With five months since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, there are over 2,500 Afghan students enrolled in Indian institutes awaiting the issuance of visas so they can return to India.
The details were shared by Farid Mamundzay, ambassador of Afghanistan to India, on Monday. He was in Zirakpur to address a trade and business conference. Mamundzay said that he has requested the ministry of home affairs (MHA) to expedite the issuance of visas to these students who are in Afghanistan. “These students are missing out on their studies as they were in the midst of their degree programmes. They have already lost one semester of studies,” he said.
Mamundzay said his office is trying to bring around 50 female students first, and more students will be brought in subsequent batches.
After sweeping through many provinces, Taliban fighters entered the capital Kabul on August 15, 2021, leading Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to flee the country and the Afghan government to collapse.
The ambassador said that India’s policy to issue visas to Afghans has changed after the Taliban takeover. “It has a drastic impact on the Afghan people, particularly on students. India has only issued around 200 visas in the last five months, and among them only two visas were issued to students,” said Mamundzay.
On scholarships to students, he said that there were almost 1,000 scholarships awarded to students in Kabul and a good number of them were in the process of obtaining visas. “Post August 15, our request to the Indian authorities was that those scholarships should be given to Afghan students who are in India, which included students on self-financed basis, and second to those who had completed their bachelors or masters degree,” he said, adding, 450 scholarships were obtained for both types of students.
“We have requested for around 70 fresh scholarships, which are currently under process, for the students who are already in India. These are mostly for students who are here on self-financed basis, and we requested the ICCR to include them in the scholarship scheme,” said Mamundzay.
