CI Migration supports the call « For an unconditional welcome in European universities of people studying in Ukraine »

Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and the Russian mili­tary assault on 24 February, there has been consi­de­rable mobi­li­sa­tion in favour of the recep­tion of displaced Ukrai­nians, parti­cu­larly at the huma­ni­ta­rian level in neigh­bou­ring coun­tries such as Poland, Hungary, Romania and Moldova. Euro­pean Interior Minis­ters are discus­sing how to welcome people fleeing armed conflict zones in Ukraine, inclu­ding by exten­ding auto­matic tempo­rary legal protec­tion under a 2001 Euro­pean direc­tive that had never been enforced thus far^[1]Council Direc­tive 2001/​55/​EC of 20 July 2001 on minimum stan­dards for giving tempo­rary protec­tion in the event of a mass influx of displaced persons and on measures promo­ting a balance of efforts between Member States in recei­ving such persons and bearing the conse­quences thereof .

Amidst this tragedy in Eastern Europe, many non-Euro­pean natio­nals living in Ukraine feel aban­doned. Thou­sands of students became trapped in the conflict, inclu­ding more than 10,000 students from Northern African, Middle Eastern as well as Central and sub-Saharan African coun­tries. Their repa­tria­tion has faced multiple obstacles or even been impos­sible. Many African students have also reported racist beha­viours by Ukrai­nian and Polish law enfor­ce­ment agents, parti­cu­larly at the borders^[2]https://​www​.brut​.media/​f​r​/​i​n​t​e​r​n​a​t​i​o​n​a​l​/​t​r​i​-​a​-​l​a​-​f​r​o​n​t​i​e​r​e​-​u​k​r​a​i​n​e​-​p​o​l​o​g​n​e​-​d​e​s​-​e​t​u​d​i​a​n​t​s​-​a​f​r​i​c​a​i​n​s​-​r​a​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​-​0​6​e​8​a​2​a​1​-​8​3​a​8​-​4​e​2​f​-​a​0​d​4​-​d​9​7​a​1​8​16495e. Some people have been pushed back several times before ente­ring the Euro­pean Union.

With regard to this situa­tion, the Presi­den­tial Council for Africa^[3]https://​www​.cpafrique​.fr/ in part­ner­ship with the Coope­ra­tion of African Asso­cia­tions for Educa­tion (CAAP Educa­tion) has laun­ched a campaign to iden­tify African students living in Ukraine and repa­triate them to France, so that they may continue their studies in part­ner­ship with French univer­si­ties^[4]https://​twitter​.com/​C​P​A​f​r​i​q​u​e​/​s​t​a​t​u​s​/​1​4​9​8​6​9​5​7​8​0​1​8​1​368843 . The Coimbra Group, an alliance of Euro­pean univer­si­ties, asked Euro­pean insti­tu­tions to include non-Euro­pean students and staff currently in Ukraine in their soli­da­rity measures^[5]https://​www​.coimbra​-group​.eu/​s​e​c​o​n​d​-​c​o​i​m​b​r​a​-​g​r​o​u​p​-​e​x​e​c​u​t​i​v​e​-​b​o​a​r​d​-​s​t​a​t​e​m​e​n​t​-​o​n​-​u​k​raine/ . In France, the PAUSE programme, meant to welcome resear­chers in danger, just opened a specific program for Ukraine.

Beyond these first initia­tives, the academic commu­nity is asking the Euro­pean Commis­sion and the govern­ments of the Member States to welcome all the students enrolled in study programmes in Ukraine who are being displaced by the conflict, and to faci­li­tate the conti­nua­tion of their studies in Euro­pean univer­si­ties if they wish to do so.

You can find the call for signa­tures for an uncon­di­tional recep­tion in Euro­pean univer­si­ties of people studying in Ukraine below :

Signez la pétition 

Pour un accueil incon­di­tionnel dans les univer­sités des personnes étudiant en Ukraine

Change​.org

The call is avai­lable in English, Spanish, Italian, Polish and Arabic.