Close to 800 medical students from Tamil Nadu who are stuck in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan have appealed to Chief Minister Edappadi K Palanisamy to help them return to the state. The students belong to four universities — OSH University, ISM-IUK, KGMA University, and Jalladabad.

In a video message, the students said they were not feeling safe in Kyrgyzstan due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. They said they had hoped for direct flights from the country to Chennai in the Centre’s Vande Bharat Mission, but the first two phases had only offered routes to Hyderabad, Cochin and New Delhi.

“More than 800 Tamil students are stranded here. We contacted the embassy; they are asking us to get in touch with the Tamil Nadu government. Our only hope is our government. If a direct flight to Chennai is not possible, please arrange for us an evacuation flight that will connect to other places like Trichy or Coimbatore,” the students said in the video which went viral across social media.

In a letter addressed to the CMO of Tamil Nadu, the students claimed that some final year students had finished the course and their visas were about to expire in a few days. They also listed reasons including the lack of food in hostels, not enough money to pay apartment rent, no access to embassy officials and health issues.

Speaking to sources, Vidhya Nandhini Venkatraman, who completed her PG degree inthe ISM-IUK University, said ever since the lockdown was imposed in Bishkek, they had been knocking at the doors of authorities to help them reach home. “Not just me, all of us stranded here want to get back home as quickly as possible. The management told us the situation was not under their control and asked us to approach the Indian-Kyrgyz Embassy. The officials at the Embassy asked us to seek the help of the government,” she said.