Jamaica's charge d'affaires in Berlin has been deployed to Poland to receive the Jamaican students heading there from the conflict-torn eastern European country, Ukraine.
Foreign Affairs Minister Kamina Johnson Smith made the disclosure on Saturday at a press conference to provide an update on the 28 Jamaican students stranded amid a military attack by Russia.
Johnson Smith said Charge d'Affaires Deniese Sealy will be working with friends of Jamaica, members of the Jamaican community and the Honorary Consul of Jamaica to Poland.
"She will provide general support to the process including settling the arrangements made for their accommodation and subsistence already underway,” said Johnson-Smith.
According to the minister, a diplomatic note has been sent by the Jamaican Embassy in Berlin to the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs requesting safe passage for the 28 Jamaican students in Ukraine.
The names of the students have also been shared the with Polish border guards.
As at late Saturday afternoon, Johnson Smith said most students were in L'viv, a city two hours away from the Polish border.
“As I speak to you today, 23 of our students are in L'viv. Four arrived early this morning and 19 by train in the last two hours,” she said.
However, she said three of the 22 students remain on the train based on instructions from their parents.
The ministry is seeking to get further information on their final destination.
Meanwhile, one student who had given her passport to Ukrainian authorities for it to be updated will be given a temporary one from the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency.
Johnson Smith said accommodation has been arranged for all the students in L'viv for what is anticipated to be a one-night stay before they leave for Poland.
"Transportation for the students from L'viv to Poland has been secured and all costs including accommodation will be underwritten by the government," she said.
In the meantime, Johnson-Smith has sought to rebuff certain comments by one student.
According to the student, he and some of his peers remained in Ukraine as they were in limbo because the Jamaican government failed to engage their universities as requested about possible academic penalties in the event they left the country.
"What I can't explain is why these statements are being made. The embassy wrote the universities. All the universities that we got information from, where students said what university, they were attending, we wrote them to ask them what the arrangements were,” she said.
The minister also said the students were kept abreast about its interventions.
She has cautioned persons against sharing misinformation online.
“When I shared with the embassy a screenshot of a particular post saying that we had not, the response was an expression of complete surprise because the embassy said 'that person knows, so why would they say that'," she insisted.
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