10 SA students return from Ukraine, more on the way

They arrived on Thursday morning after pharmaceutical giant Aspen and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation teamed up to help get them home.

The Durban-headquartered company says another 25 more South Africans are expected home later.

Twenty-three of them should arrive this weekend, while the remaining two students will board their flights next week after testing positive for Covid-19.

Senior executive at Aspen, Stavros Nicolaou, says they felt they had a responsibility to help with an emergency evacuation. 

"Many South African students that were studying in Ukraine subsequently had to flee Ukraine and with very little possessions found themselves in neighbouring countries to Ukraine."

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"The plight of these students looked exceedingly dim and we felt the right and responsible thing to do in the spirit of Ubuntu was to see how we could get these students back into South Africa, safely on home soil and reunited with their families." 

Nicolaou has urged those who can help to reach out as part of the global community. 

"The best way for people to respond is to try and help whenever humanitarian crisis because you never know when you need help yourself, of course. 

"You got to put this narrative forward - that we are one global human village and when there is a humanitarian crisis, as is the case with our students, the best and responsible thing we can do is let's use our resources and get our students back."