Afghan students await issuance of visa by Indian government to return

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.

Over 2,500 students from Afghanistan are still awaiting for issuance of visas by the Indian government to return to their specific institutes and colleges to pursue their higher studies. It has been five months since the collapse of the government in Afghanistan and eventually takeover by the Taliban forces, and students enrolled in Indian institutes have still not received their visas. The details regarding the same have been shared with Afghanistan Ambassador to India Farid Mamundzay.

Mamundzay during his address at a trade and business conference in Zirakpur 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. He further informed that his office is initially trying to bring around 50 female students first and more than students will be brought in subsequent batches. 

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.

While speaking about the 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 the self-financed basis, and second to those who had completed their bachelor 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 a self-financed basis, and we requested the ICCR to include them in the scholarship scheme,” said Mamundzay.

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