"Established foreign relations helped in bringing back the students"

The foreign relationships built played a huge role in bringing back Maldivian students in Ukraine, states Communication Director of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Miuvan Mohamed.

Speaking at the 'Falasurukhee' program of RaajjeTV, Miuvan shared that the Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulla Shahid had numerous discussions with the Foreign Minister of Hungary to confirm the safe return of Maldivian students. Highlighting that it is not easy to get visas to enter European countries, Miuvan said that arrangements were made to make this process easier to the students.

Stating that a lot of work was done during the past two years to build strong diplomatic relationships with foreign countries, Miuvan said that relationships between Maldives and European Union countries were strengthen during this period.

He said that this experience showed us the importance of having a good relationship with foreign countries.

Speaking at the program the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulla Humaid said that with the escalation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the Ministry was keeping a close eye on the students in Ukraine. He said that the Ministry was in contact with the students until they were safely back in Maldives.

Humaid said that even though a lot of work had to be done to bring back the students as the Ukrainian airspace was closed, the Ministry had many discussions with the countries sharing their border with Ukraine to find a safe route to bring back the students. As such, the Ministry had discussions with Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary. The first country to respond was Hungary.

Students in Ukraine were brought back to Maldives in two groups.

The first group, consisting of 15 Maldivians crossed the Ukrainian border into Hungary on February 25. They were received by the Ministry's team in Hungary and was safely brought back to Maldives.

The second group consisted of eight students who were in Kharkiv and one in Dnipro. Kharkiv and Dnipro being on the eastern side of Ukraine made it challenging to transport them to Hungary's border, which was in the western side of Ukraine. However, they also crossed the Hungarian border safely and returned to Maldives.

The Ministry worked around the clock to bring back the Maldivians back home safely.