MADURAI: A fourth-year MBBS student from Madurai, Daisy Asha Moraes, who was stranded in Russia following the cancellation of domestic flights amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, has alleged that the Indian Embassy failed to respond to her pleas for assistance, resulting in her detention for overstaying her visa.

She managed to reach Madurai on November 1 following the intervention of Madurai MP Su Venkatesan, whom her father approached for help. Moraes said that as her visa was due to expire on October 18, she had booked a flight to Madurai for October 16. She is pursuing her fourth-year MBBS course at South Ural State Medical University in Chelyabinsk, Russia. She had booked a flight from Chelyabinsk to Moscow and an international flight from Moscow to Madurai. However, her flight was cancelled due to the conflict. She booked another flight to Moscow from Yekaterinburg, a nearby city.

When flights from there were also cancelled, she contacted the Indian Embassy for assistance but alleged that officials failed to respond.

Subsequently, she was detained at an immigration camp for allegedly overstaying her visa.

Russian immigration authorities reportedly sentenced her to 90 days and directed her to file an appeal within 10 days. She also claimed that Russian authorities had imposed a five-year ban on her re-entering the country. She further claimed that nearly 30 students from her university had faced similar difficulties in Russia.