With city alert, we rushed underground for safety: Bangladeshi student in Ukraine

There was a curfew declared from 11:00pm to 6:00am in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odessa as there were threats of attacks from the Russian forces. That left the city into an eerie calm, with residents remaining indoors.

Like all, Bangladeshi medical student Rizve Hasan and his four flatmates in a 17-storey building were also in an unnerving situation -- passing the night with almost no sleep.

"Very early in the morning, around 4:00am, there was a city alert. That meant we all had to go to the underground for safety," Rizve told this correspondent from Odessa around 12:00 noon local time.

He said they all frantically rushed to the basement of the building and spent nearly two hours.

"It was a frightening situation. We were all so afraid. But, finally there came another security alert that meant there was no fear of attack. We then got back to our room," Rizve, an MBBS final year student at the Odessa National Medical University in Ukraine, said.

He said there are some 500 Bangladeshis in Odessa and many of them have started moving toward the border with Poland. He was also trying to rent a car to go as Poland opened the border for Bangladeshis.

He said that State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam as well as the Bangladesh embassy contacted him yesterday and he is engaged in a whatsapp group opened by the Bangladesh embassy in Poland.

"I am in touch with the embassy. It said it would try to make arrangements for my travel to the Polish border. Alternatively, I may also arrange a trip," Rizve said.

Bangladesh embassy officials from Poland, Germany and Italy were also rushing to the border to provide travel document-related services to the Bangladeshis in need.

Sultana Laila Hossain, Bangladesh ambassador to Poland, said they will arrange accommodation for the Bangladeshis on an urgent basis. Based on the situation, they can be evacuated from there to Bangladesh or they can go back to Ukraine if the situation improves.

She told The Daily Star she was in talks with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Ukraine so that the Bangladeshis, who were in detention centers for overstaying their visas, can be repatriated by the IOM.

"We are also in contact with the Ukrainian authorities to make this happen," Sultana Laila said.