War in Ukraine: Indian Embassy Starts Evacuating Students via Hungary, Romania Borders

The Indian Embassy has started to evacuate Indian citizens stuck in Ukraine back to their homeland. Indan Embassy has chalked out an escape route via Romanian and Hungary borders. The first batch of evacuees from Ukraine have reached Romania via Suceava border crossing. Arindam Bagchi, official spokesperson, Ministry of External Affairs has tweeted a video of the evacuatees stating, “our team at Suceava will now facilitate travel to Bucharest for their onward journey to India.”

The Embassy in its latest notice has asked Indians living closer to the escape points to start their journey towards the points in an organized manner. The Embassy has asked Indians to “strong, safe, and alert” in this crisis.

The evacuation routes identified by the Indian government and embassy are CHOP-ZAHONY Hungarian border near Uzhhordod and PORUBNE-SIRET Romanian Border near Chernivtsi. “Indian nationals, especially students living closest to the above border checkpoints to depart first in an organized manner, in coordination with teams from the Ministry of External Affairs,” said the embassy.

“Once above routes are operational, Indian nationals traveling by their own arrangements for transport would be advised to proceed to above border checkpoints, and remain in touch with the helpline numbers set up at respective checkpoints for facilitation through the border,” it added.

The Embassy of India has asked students to remain in touch with student contractors, for orderly movement. Embassy has also asked every Indian in Ukraine to carry their passport, cash preferably in USD for emergency expenses, and other essentials with them while traveling along with covid-19 double vaccination certificate, if available.

To ensure safety during the travel from the place of residence to the checkpoint, the Embassy has asked Indians to print out the Indian flag and paste it prominently on vehicles and buses while traveling.

Over 20,000 students had gone to Ukraine for studies. Ukraine due to its affordable education is one of the favorite spots for Indian students to study medicine. After notices from the Indian Embassy to vacate colleges and universities some of the students had left, however, many could not leave due to uncertainty around exams and high ticket fares.

Meanwhile, the Indian government has launched helplines for students and other Indian citizens in Ukraine. Indian citizens can get in touch with Embassy at +38 0997300483, +38 0997300428, +38 0933980327, +38 0635917881, +38 0935046170.

The MEA control room too is being expanded and has been operational 24×7. The contact details of the MEA control room are — +91 11 23012113, +91 11 23014104, +91 11 23017905 and 1800118797 (toll free). They can also be reached via email at [email protected].

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