The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Economic Trade, Sibusiso Moyo Wednesday said 2 600 Zimbabweans including students on the Presidential Scholarship scheme had registered at various Zimbabwe embassies for repatriation home.
He said most of the students in question are in China while some of them are in India, the United Kingdom, and other parts of Europe, the United States, South Africa and Botswana.
Appearing before the parliamentary portfolio committee on Foreign Affairs chaired by Zanu PF Makonde MP, Kindness Paradza, Moyo said:
We have many students who are on government scholarships who have registered to come back home as well as other citizens who were out on private business but can no longer pay for the tickets.
Those students cannot pay a ticket on Ethiopian Airlines, the parents cannot also afford to pay for an air ticket.
So we have got this situation where we have got a lot of students stranded in China and the plan is that we have got to evacuate them. We have tried to say that we buy them air tickets but I understand Ethiopian Airways has just increased its price.
He added that the price of tickets was increased to US$5 000 hence expensive for the broke government. Reports suggest that among the stranded citizens is a senator.
Learning abroad became more attractive a decade ago when the education system in the country collapsed in direct response to the socio-economic and political crises in the country.
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