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Some international students inhibited by travel complications as Fall semester approaches

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MONTREAL -

Heading back to school can be an exciting time for many students, but changes in travel restrictions due to COVID-19 may mean missing the start of class for some international students.

McGill student Shachin Dev, who is from India, has worked remotely on his PhD in medical physics since January, but says the nine and a half hour time difference is proving challenging.

“I was supposed to do experiments which I am totally missing. We are right now focusing on things we can do remotely,” he said. “In that way it's a kind of loss to my studies — if I had been there things would be better.

Dev wanted to start this semester in Montreal, but Canada again extended the ban on direct flights from India until Sept. 21, forcing Dev to re-book again.

Dev is now in Serbia, a country that has a visa on arrival for Indian nationals. Though fully vaccinated, he's quarantining before boarding a flight to Montreal via Frankfurt.

Frustrated with the ever changing rules, Dev hopes Canada relaxes measures for students.

“Canada is allowing US citizens [in] for non-essential [reasons],” he said, adding that double-vaccinated students from India are prohibited from entering even when it’s for “essential purposes.”

Canada imposed the ban on India because of the Delta variant that was ravaging that country last spring.

But experts say the focus should be on who is coming in: those who are fully vaccinated and test negative.

“If you wanted to reduce the chances or speed by which that variant is imported to Canada, then a direct ban when there was no or little Delta in Canada might have made sense,” said infectious diseases expert Dr. Matthew Oughton, “but that horse has left the barn, and to continue that ban now doesn't make a lot of sense.”

The federal government told CTV the ban on direct flights allows travellers to be tested for COVID once they've left a high risk country, reducing the risk of contracting the virus between receiving the test and boarding a flight to Canada.

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