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| Quarantine officials disinfect international students' bags and belongings when they enter Incheon International Airport Monday. /Yonhap |
By Bahk Eun-ji
International students studying in Korea are starting to return to their home countries amid the soaring number of cases of coronavirus infection here, according to university officials Thursday.
An officials at the Korea Development Institute School of Public Policy and Management (KDI School) said an international student in his 20s from Bangladesh, who entered the school this year, left for his home country Sunday. She said the student asked for leave of absence for the semester.
The KDI School is a special graduate school affiliated with the KDI. Among the approximately 200 students, half of them are international students from developing countries. More than 2,000 international students have earned degrees from the school since it opened in 1997. The international students are invited to study at the school by the Korean government, which provides tuition fees, covers living expenses and provides housing for them in the form of a scholarship. After studying here, it is hoped that they will share their positive experiences from Korea when they return to their home countries.
When the Bangladeshi student returned home, he reportedly told his peers that he was worried about the situation surrounding the COVID-19 virus, which has become an epidemic in Korea.
"After he heard about the coronavirus spread in Korea, he was scared that the airports would be closed, so he booked a plane ticket and went back home," his friend was quoted as saying by a local daily newspaper.
At the time last week when the Bangladeshi student departed, the number of confirmed COVID-19 patients had surged to 602 on Feb. 23 from just 30, Feb.18. To date, Korea has reported 1,766 cases of the highly contagious virus, with 13 deaths, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).
In response to the concerns shown by the international students, the KDI School notified them that classes would be cancelled for a week until March 3. The school initially opened for the new semester Feb. 10 and held classes despite the Ministry of Education's order to postpone the start of the spring semester.
"We can't say his decision to take a leave of absence was not due to the recent outbreak of the contagious virus in Korea. There are growing fears of infection among other students," the school official said.
In addition, Hanyeong University officials reported that Vietnamese students studying at the school are rushing to return home for fear of community spread of the new coronavirus. Around 20 out of a total of 93 students from the country, who have been studying Korean since December 2018, have informed the school that they will return to Vietnam.
The Vietnamese students said that their parents were so worried about their safety with the COVID-19 virus outbreak in Korea that they told their children to return home as soon as possible.
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