Engineering, medicine, architecture…. Between 8000 and 10,000 Moroccan students have chosen Ukraine to pursue their dream studies. Today, the threat of invasion of Ukraine by Russia has caused concern to these students and their families in Morocco. Moroccan Internet users were quick to call on social networks for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take immediate action to ensure the return of Moroccan students residing in Ukraine, similar to the special flights that were dedicated to Moroccan students repatriated from China at the beginning of the pandemic. Internet users launched the hashtag “Invasion of Ukraine, save Moroccan students”.
Although Moscow has denied any possibility of war with Kiev, Moroccan parents are worried, especially after Joe Biden’s statement that “Europe is living the most dangerous moment since the end of the Cold War thirty years ago”. Abdellah, the father of a young architecture student in Odessa, told us that “the parents of the students are all very worried, we follow the news relentlessly and we hope that it will stop soon before it turns into a nightmare,” he sighed.
The Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco in Kiev recommended on Saturday to Moroccan citizens in Ukraine to leave the country for their safety. “In light of the current situation, the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco in Kiev recommends to Moroccan citizens in Ukraine to leave the country for their safety via available commercial flights,” said a statement from the diplomatic representation. The Embassy also calls on Moroccan citizens wishing to travel to Ukraine to postpone their trip at this time, according to the same source. In a discussion that was transmitted to us between a Moroccan student and the embassy, the latter insisted that the students return as soon as possible to avoid the worst. “Don’t talk about documents or studies now, the most important thing is to save yourself now, then you can come back in one or two months if everything goes well,” the embassy representative told the student.
However, the return to the country will not be a quiet river. This is because they must first buy a very expensive ticket in this period, have made the third dose and pay the PCR test of less than 48 hours to the date of entry into the country. “Commercial flights from Ukraine are so expensive (minimum 600€) and you have to do the third dose, but 80% of the students are not vaccinated because you have to get an identity code (difficult to get for foreigners)”, told us Ilyass, a fourth year medical student in Kharkiv. Although Ilyass wants to come back, he thinks that it would be too complicated and that it will take at least 2 to 3 months if there are no exceptional measures such as the administration of the third dose upon arrival in Morocco.
A large majority of the students contacted by us clearly announced that they do not intend to return to Morocco. For Sara, a student in her 5th year of medicine: “Russia and Ukraine have both announced that they do not want a war, besides, we live normally, the courses at the university continue… we have nothing to fear in my opinion. We can’t give up a huge investment of time, effort and money for American propaganda. This position is shared by Amine, who says that “the situation does not require as much mobilization” and considers that “if a majority of students return to Morocco, it will be to the profit of the contractors who will take advantage of the situation to ask for money from the students to help them. Amine explains that the contractors are the students’ representatives at the universities and are like “tutors”, “these contractors will be able to charge more to the students for translation services, especially since the first and second year students do not yet master the language or to mediate between the university administration and the students”.
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