Moroccan Student Struggles with Isolation in French University Lockdown

"It’s hard. I’m alone here, my family is in Morocco," laments Chaimaa Farkchi, a Moroccan chemistry student, confined on the Poitiers campus, in France (Vienne). "Morocco has closed its borders; I can’t go back," she explains. Although she is studying, she does not have the required serenity. Her fear, she says, is to fall ill.

The common areas of her building do not reassure her. She has therefore installed a hotplate in her 9 m2 room. "I’m afraid to go to the kitchen. The laundry, I go there in the morning, as soon as it opens, to be quiet. Otherwise, I stay in my room..." she confides to AFP.

However, according to the rules of the CROUS of Poitiers, only one person should have access to the collective kitchens and laundries of the university residences at a time. "But no one respects the rules, notes Ibrahim Ahamada, a Comorian student. We can find ourselves five or more cooking. We have no choice, we have to eat."

For his part, the director of the university health service, Jean-Charles Le Tarner, assures that he has set up regular patrols in the various residences on the campus; which will allow to take the pulse and to give some advice. "Anxiety is gradually rising, he confirms. At first, the students were mostly thinking about the postponement of their courses, their exams. But the death of a 16-year-old girl in Paris changed the situation. There has been an awareness among these young people."