Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has assured that the government will give ‘maximum’ support to students who manage to flee Ukraine into accredited laissez-passer neighbouring countries for temporary shelter.

In an interview with Nampa on Tuesday, Nandi-Ndaitwah said by Monday, 34 students had reached temporary shelters in respective countries assisting Namibia such as Poland, Belarus, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania to ensure safe passage, where the government is constantly monitoring and assessing the students through government representatives on the ground, before repatriation.

She noted that the government is “vigorously” arranging all the necessary procedures to ensure that students are repatriated immediately, noting that some countries such as Poland have given countries an ultimatum of 15 days to repatriate their citizens.

“Students might come [repatriated] in groups because the situation on the ground is challenging, as students are arriving in different groups as they manoeuvre to get out of Ukraine to neighbouring countries,” she said.

Nandi-Ndaitwah reiterated that the government will render the necessary support, including counselling to students as soon as they are repatriated, urging parents to have faith in government efforts to repatriate those in safe neighbouring countries.

“Until now it is not easy to assist the ones in Ukraine, should there be an opportunity to do that definitely we will grab it, but as we stand now it is not there. Government has no control of what is really happening in Ukraine. Perhaps parents from a relative side can encourage the children to remain calm and be strategic to find a possible way out,” she said.

The minister also urged parents and relatives to render their cooperation to government efforts such as programmes put in place to assist the students upon arrival.

Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine last Thursday, marking a major escalation between the two countries that have been in a state of conflict since 2014.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency