Wisma Putra seeking to bring home Malaysian students from UK

The Foreign Ministry is planning to bring home Malaysian students in the United Kingdom (UK) in the near future but is facing problems arranging the flights.

Wisma Putra, in a statement today, said it was working to obtain flight tickets with Qatar Airways as the airline still offers flights to Kuala Lumpur from London with transit in Doha, following the British Airways' decision to cancel all their flights to Kuala Lumpur throughout June.

"Malaysia Airlines is expected to resume operations to London around early July this year. There are several students who have been affected by this and have lodged written complaints to Malawakil London," the statement said.

Malawakil London has also clarified that the claim stating there were 1,500 Malaysian students in the UK wanting to return to Malaysia within the next two months was untrue, the statement said.

"Thus far, only 200 students have expressed their wish to return in May, while 631 students want to return in June. Most of them are third and final year students as well as postgraduates.

"The final exams are slated in the middle of May and in the middle of June (depending on their respective institutions)," the statement said.

The UK government had announced the extension of visas until May 31 to those whose visas expired since Jan 24 and could not leave the country following the COVID-19 outbreak.

"The decision on whether the date will be extended after May 31 will only be known by then," it said, adding that most of the students who would be sitting for the exams still have valid visas.

-- BERNAMA