The Indian National Students Association (INSA) UK recently wrote to Home Secretary Priti Patel seeking urgent clarity for Indian students caught up in the Covid India crisis, which has added India on to the UK’s travel ban “red list”.
Here is what INSA UK have reached out to the British Indian Cabinet minister for:
We write this letter to bring to your notice the recent adverse impact on students from India due to the travel restrictions put by the UK.
We are cognizant of the fact that borders have to be closed based on the Covid linked data but this has put a lot of travel plans of students coming to the UK in jeopardy. To provide a profile, many of these students paid their fees in September 2020 but could not travel to UK or returned back in December due to the lockdown in UK at that time.
Many students whose academic year also began in January 2021 and for some students beginning in May, had immediate travel plans to UK due to restrictions being eased in UK. This resulted in a fairly large number of students flying from India to carry on their studies for both academic years.
An average student cannot afford to pay an exorbitant London hotel rent for 10 days and are now stuck in limbo as even the air ticket prices have gone through the roof. Many of them also have to take their final exams and are asking us questions linked to that.
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Students are requesting if special quarantine facilities can be created for them at the university itself as some of them have a large population of students travelling from India. Therefore, we request that communication be sent out to current and future students impacted, on what their status is and what impact will the travel restrictions have on their future. A key clarification requested is the impact on the post study work visa (Graduate visa).
We look forward to having your response. Please let us know on the action taken and are happy to provide further details on this matter.
Amit Tiwari is the National President of the Indian National Students Association (INSA) UK.
