Moroccan Students Who Fled Ukraine War Gather for Ramadan Iftar in Belgium

A breaking of the fast (Iftar) not like the others. Around the table, desperate, discouraged Moroccan students, but who appreciate this invitation from the International Moroccan Federation of Civil Society Associations. A few months ago, some of them were already looking forward to getting their automotive engineering degree. But the war in Ukraine forced them to hurry to Belgium, reports bx1.

Abdrrenhale Maadour is one of these Moroccan students who say they are at an impasse. "I’m nothing. All those years I spent in Ukraine are reduced to ashes. I have nothing. I just want to finish my studies, I want nothing else."

He is not the only one to nurture this hope. Being able to finish their studies and have the diploma in hand. They hope that a second chance will be given to them in a Belgian university or school. But it is a difficult project with many obstacles. Hajar is a student in pharmacology. She was starting the sixth and final year of her specialty when the Ukrainian conflict forced her to join Belgium, leaving behind her dream of obtaining her diploma.

"I just want to be given the chance to finish my studies. Only students with Ukrainian nationality are allowed to do so. For us others, we need refugee status. I would really like to be helped to get it so that I can finish what I have been fighting for all these years," she confides.

Faced with the difficulties, they say they are abandoned to their fate and call for help. "It’s not good to know that you are being sidelined. It’s a horrible feeling. Knowing that we have all these problems because we are not Ukrainian, it’s discouraging." For Mohamed Barbouch, president of the ASBL Basma, sorting out the students when they are all experiencing the same situation is unacceptable. "It is inhumane to give Ukrainian students the chance to continue their studies and to impose conditions on Moroccans. It is inhumane and intolerable."