They are nearly 400 from Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Congo, Nigeria to have fled the war in Ukraine and have been able to find shelter in Europe, and in particular in France. Some of them are still waiting to obtain a student residence permit to continue their studies. With the support of certain associations, they manage and survive as best they can.
After a year of waiting, Pépin Dokali, a 21-year-old Cameroonian, has just obtained a residence permit. He will finally be able to resume his studies, which were interrupted in the middle of the war. ” I lost a year. In my head, it’s frustrating, but you have to have a lot of patience. If we don’t, we can’t do anything in life, he believes. I’m going to do digital marketing, which is completely the opposite of what I was doing in Ukraine who was a biomedical engineer. It’s really not easy, but I had no choice. »
The circular from the Ministry of Higher Education is clear. It specifies the registration procedures for foreign students from Ukraine. For them, it is not possible to pursue medical studies.
Ange Jaurès Biagné also had to change course. Leaving Côte d’Ivoire to do logistics in Ukraine, here he is in a media and audiovisual edition letter at the Sorbonne. And like others, he is also under an obligation to leave the territory. It is incomprehensible to him. ” I received the OQTF, I don’t understand why. It hurts, because I have already started my classes at the Sorbonne and finished the first semester, then started the second, explains Ange Jaurès Biagné. The prefecture knew that I was studying, I proved it with a certificate of schooling and the payment of my school fees, it upset me. »
► To read also: The still difficult journey of African refugee students from Ukraine in France
” Because they are Africans »
The reception of African students in France is strewn with pitfalls. Abdélaziz Moundé, president of the Association of Cameroonians in France, accompanies them through this administrative labyrinth. And he doesn’t mince his words. These students are the great forgotten of this conflict, he says.
” Because they are Africans. It’s difficult to be African, to come, to be refugees and displaced from Ukraine. It is considered after the circular of March 4 that only Ukrainian refugees are entitled to the chapter. We, we rebelled against that. It is discrimination that is beyond the shadow of a doubt. That is to say, if you are all fleeing the war, you may simply be entitled, all of you, to temporary protection. They didn’t, simply because they are Africans. I think that at some point you have to put your feet in the dish “.
Abdélaziz Moundé also teaches at the Collège de Paris, where around twenty African students have been able to register. While Pépin Dokali is rediscovering the classroom, impatient at the idea of going back to university, the fight of the associations continues. It is necessary to manage to educate those who are not yet, to house them and to maintain the exemptions from tuition fees, with a view to the next school year.
► To read also: The number of African students in France reaches a record in 2022