By Tracey Ugwueru
International students are having to contemplate whether to stay or go home with Boris Johnson’s decision of another lockdown for the UK.
The lockdown started on Thursday, November 5, and is due to run until December 2.
A Polish International student, studying at DMU, has decided to stay in the UK because of the length of time that she would have to self-isolate if she went home, and for fear of transmitting the virus.
She said that going back to Poland would mean that she would have to self-isolate along with her family for two weeks and, when she returns, she would have to do the same.
The risk of transmitting the virus is avoided by not going to the airport nor travelling to and from different locations. She added that she didn’t want to risk catching the virus at the airport.
International students being more considerate and careful with their movements would keep limit virus transmissions, however it also means that they would miss spending Christmas with their family.
Another international student, from Sweden, said: “Brexit laws would make it difficult to come back.”
She added that if international students left before the lockdown they would have to apply for student status to allow them to come back to the UK.
She said their leaving would bring other complications such as confirming ID, processes which can take up to two weeks. Old people and young people are still being separated in Sweden to avoid transmission of the virus so going back for Christmas would still be difficult trying to get all the family together.
“Not much information has been given to international students and they have been left in the dark,” she continued.
