Thousands of African students have fled Ukraine since the outbreak of war with Russia last month to various European countries and many say they have no desire to return to their home countries in Africa.
An estimated 23,000 Africans were studying in Ukrainian universities and other institutions at the start of the Russian invasion and made up around a third of the total number of foreign students in Ukraine, who were mainly concentrated in the cities of Kharkiv, Lviv and Kyiv.
Israa Aelle, a student originally from Algeria, explained that Ukraine was an attractive country to study in as visas were easy to obtain and the costs of schooling were low. “I don’t want to go back to Algeria,” Aella told French newspaper Le Figaro.
According to the newspaper, many other students who fled Ukraine are also not interested in going back to their home countries, despite countries like the Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo quickly finding ways to bring their nationals home.
Many students, instead, have sought out groups in countries like France in order to find accommodation and some are looking to continue their studies in western European educational institutions.
Earlier this month, Nicholas Bay, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), spoke on the issue of African nationals among Ukrainian refugees, saying that some may be trying to use the crisis as a way to illegally enter Europe.
“[T]oday a third of the refugees who pass through Ukraine, who do not come from Ukraine, but… come from sub-Saharan Africa in particular… [they] use this new migratory route to come to Europe,” Bay said.
The former member of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) and now vice-president of Eric Zemmour’s Reconquest! party added: “There are those who come for economic reasons, who weigh down our public accounts and our social accounts, and the Ukrainians towards whom we have a duty of European solidarity, of course.”
Some Syrian nationals have also expressed a desire to use the Ukraine crisis to enter Europe, stating that they would travel abroad and brave the war in Ukraine for an opportunity to get to Europe.