By Saheed Ibrahim
|
African students, who fled Ukraine last year are being told to return to the country or risk not completing their degrees, a leading African activist, Korrine Sky has lamented.
According to Sky, African students are being told they need to return to the war-torn country to sit final exams despite the safety risks.
The Founder of Africans in Ukraine Education Fund and a Refugee Education Activist said: “If they do not write this exam they will not be getting their degrees and I just think that is a completely unreasonable task, especially at such short notice, because some students did return to Africa or India.
“How are they supposed to raise the money to come back to Ukraine? There is an ongoing war, it’s very dangerous and anything could happen to these students.”
She added that none of the universities had said how it planned to ensure the safety of the students.
Sky alleged that the scholarships helping students to return are only being offered to Ukrainians.
She said: “When people started applying for these scholarships, they started getting responses saying that ‘these scholarships are for Ukrainians only and you may have better luck in your home countries.’”
She claims African students, who are being allowed back into Ukraine, are being made to sign a “consent form” which says “should they get into any harm, should they be bombed or die, trying to come back to Ukraine, the university is not liable for that.”
According to Ms. Sky, the African students who stayed in other parts of Europe, were given temporary visas and are not considered refugees, but are considered “Third Country Nationals” who are being ordered to leave in the next two weeks – or face deportation.
