mumbai

Updated: Mar 13, 2020 01:03 IST

Almost 100 Indian students who don’t have health certificates are stuck at Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Rome.

HT had reported earlier this week that hundreds of Indian students are living in constant fear of being infected by novel coronavirus in Italy, one of the worst affected countries of the pandemic after China, the epicentre of the outbreak.

The Indian Embassy in Italy took note of the HT report, and tweeted that proper assistance to stranded students would be provided to bring them back to India. All the students were asked to fill up a coronavirus health certificate with their details.

However, the students are now alleging that despite their repeated attempts, they had to book their return tickets at a higher price because they didn’t get any official help on time. Now, they are stuck at the airport with no food.

“My Air India flight was scheduled to depart at 7:30 pm on Wednesday, but we got a message in the evening that it has been delayed. Now, after four rescheduling, we are being told that the flight will leave on Thursday night but will only take those passengers who have health certificates,” said Jayshankar Nair, a resident of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. Nair is a post-graduate mechanical engineering student at Sapienza University in Rome.

Students are panicking amid the news that flight services will be suspended for 10 days between March 15 and 25.

On Thursday, students alleged that the embassy is testing students only if they have symptoms such as fever, cold and cough.

“The embassy doesn’t have an adequate number of medical kits to do the testing for all the students so they can’t provide health certificates to us until we have symptoms,” said Mohammed Abdul Rehman, another student from Hyderabad. “No one is giving us the health certificate,” he added.

Though it is the policy of airlines to provide food and water to passengers in case of delays, these students have been deprived of the basic facilities, despite an over 24-hour layover.

Most of the students have spent between Rs26,000 and Rs28,000 to buy the return tickets.

“I had bought my ticket on March 4 and the advisory for the health certificate came on March 7. So, will Air India refund my money, if I am not allowed to board the flight?” asked Nair. The students are forced to sleep on floors at the airport’s waiting rooms.

No one responded at the embassy’s helpline number, despite repeated attempts. HT also tried to reach them via emails, but didn’t get any response. Students are alleging that the embassy is making them more susceptible to the infection as they are holed up in the airport, one of the most vulnerable spots to get afflicted, and also delaying their departure back home.

“Airports are one of the most vulnerable places to contract coronavirus. We don’t have masks and the authorities expect us to wait at the airport for hours with no official response,” said Diyana Kasturi, another student.