National Medical Forum demands consideration of Ukrainian returned medicos as war victims

New Delhi: The National Medical Forum has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to consider those medical students who have been evacuated from Ukraine as war victims.

"By Geneva convention, these migrations were forced and as a result of the unfortunate war between the two countries leading to a loss of fruitful employment and living opportunities for these displaced students and thus these displaced and migrated students should be considered as War Victims", reads the letter.

Also Read:Ukraine medical universities to offer online classes

Talking to IANS, Dr. Prem Aggarwal, President National Medical Forum, said, "Just bringing the students from the war-torn region will not help them. They are the war victims. We have to make a one-time special clause for them to complete their studies". Dr. Aggarwal said that the forum will also file a petition in the Supreme Court to declare them as war victims.

Due to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, massive destruction and loss of lives have taken place in all the cities of Ukraine leading to an exodus of Indian medical students from that country. These students were not involved in the war but were residing in the war zone and thus were at an extreme degree of risk of hostilities, reads the letter.

However, now they lost the opportunity to complete their education and fruitful employment, said the forum requesting the government to declare these forcefully migrated students as war victims so that the community can help them accordingly.

Also Read:Plea in SC seeks induction of Ukraine-returned MBBS students to Indian Medical System

Medical Dialogues team has recently published about the recent pleas moved in the Delhi High Court revealed that all is not well with Indian medical students who have returned from foreign universities in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. While they are safe at home, their future however remains uncertain. It all started in 2020 when students of Chinese universities started returning to the country leaving their studies behind as the Covid-19 pandemic started engulfing the world. The beginning of the medical students' exodus started from this tipping point, only to get more complicated with the war.