Moroccan Students in Coronavirus-Hit Wenzhou Plead for Evacuation

From Wenzhou, 11 Moroccan students - eight girls and three boys - are launching a cry for help, with a view to their repatriation from this Chinese city. Abderrahman, 26, one of them, expresses his concern. "We are just as worried, as the city risks being quarantined at any moment," fears the student.

Closure of many businesses and establishments in Wenzhou on the occasion of the Chinese New Year, reopening of banks in mid-February, implementation of security measures, etc. The Moroccan students are full of anxiety. "To leave the university, we have to sign a paper, a kind of discharge that stipulates that we will not return to the university, because we risk being carriers of the virus when we return," confides to TelQuel, Yousra, 20, who is saddened by the suspension of flights to China.

"Personally, I have my flight to Morocco this Saturday, February 1st," she says. "But given the number of companies that have suspended their flights to China recently, I have no guarantee that mine will not be cancelled. If that’s the case, I won’t be able to go back to the dorm, because I’ve signed the discharge." She condemns the fact that the Moroccan embassy in Beijing conditions their repatriation on the quarantine of the city of Wenzhou.

"We have been in contact with the students of Wenzhou who are in turn very worried. But for now, we can’t do anything because the city is not under quarantine," says Hamid Ballouch, first secretary of the Moroccan embassy in Beijing, in charge of the file of Moroccan students in Wuhan.