Tamil students say North Indians favoured during evacuation from Ukraine

A group of Tamil Nadu students who have returned from Ukraine alleged that during the evacuation, the officials have favoured North Indian students over South Indian students.

After scores of Indian students were evacuated from Ukraine, a group of Tamil students has alleged that during their evacuation the officials had favoured the North Indian students over the South Indian students.

They said that when a flight was arranged for evacuating Kerala students was changed, it had become a huge issue and sparked outrage among the Malayalam community in Ukraine, as reported by India Today.

Officials struck down names of South Indian students

One of the Tamil students said, “There were around 70-80 seats available on a flight. North Indian students had arrived just that morning. We had been waiting for 24 to 48 hours. Officials struck out names of South Indian students in favour of prioritising North Indian students for evacuation.”

Another student said, “Officials had told us that there would be a first-come, first serve policy for evacuations. We had reached the border on March 1. A flight should’ve been scheduled for March 2, but it wasn’t. ”

“There was a flight which was scheduled for 15 Malayalis from Kerala. However, for unknown reasons, the flight for the Malayalis was cancelled, and they were replaced with North Indian students. Due to this, the Malayali community in Poland were outraged,” said a Tamil Nadu student who returned from Ukraine.

As per these students, they were returning from Kharkiv and were told by the Indian Embassy officials that students stranded on the Eastside, close to the Russian border, must cross 100 km by themselves which was not easy for them amidst the constant bombing and missile attacks. They alleged that when after facing these problems they reached the border, the North Indian students were being favoured.

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