Zim students in Cyprus speaks on how they were tricked into coming to study in the island and how their dreams got crushed

A known mystery of African students is on the agenda again. In an article published by Turkish Cypriot daily, Havadis, some Zimbabwean students talked about why they preferred the TRNC, on what conditions they were invited, what they expected and what they found.

Note: This article was written in Turkish. Translation not 100%

"LIVING LITTLE OUT":

Havadis' interviewed three Zimbabwe students who stated that they were told that they would be able to work in Cyprus, which they call Europe after graduating from universities. Agencies in their countries come to them with promises like universities in Europe present them with good working environments on campus. But when the students come to the island, they can not find any of these promises.

CHOICE BETWEEN SCHOOL WORK: 

These students have witnessed that almost all of the African students in university campuses are experiencing work and money problems. They can not find a short-term job to survive and have to work full-time which leads to the interruption of their acedemics.

MEASURED VIOLENCE: 

Some sStudents say, "There is a moderate violence on campus, because school administrations are not involved in these events. Those who are violent and those who offer protection are trying to be humiliated as a result. " 

There is a massive migration from Africa to the TRNC. With the start of a new academic year in the universities in the TRNC, students from various countries of the world begin to come into the TRNC to reach a happy ending, graduate from where they left with the hope of a new beginning.

According to the statements of the TRNC authorities, the number of active students studying at 14 universities in the previous session is 93,223 all of which are from other countries. 13,573 are Turkish citizens, 52,112 are from Turkiye and 27,538 are from Africa and the rest. 

Authorities did not give clear statements according to the number of students from the other countries. The rationale is that the Greek authorities are likely to use this information in the wrong direction. However, this justification also allows for the elimination of transparency and the realization and resolution of problems. Especially in relation to African-descent youths whose numbers have increased regularly in recent years and are becoming more visible and addressed by their problems. 

Cameroonian student, Kamden Chenteu Veronique, who was sent to prison because she could not get her wages from her workplace in the past days and that she was having trouble with her desperate employers, brought back the problem of African students, a known mystery. 

This event also led to the questioning of potential problems that could be raised by some of the courses that were run by a woman who could not defend herself in public, except for the African students and even the known universities and which were operating under the name of "academy".

Zimbabwe 3 Student

We are meeting with 3 young students from Zimbabwe who came to the TRNC in September to learn about what they preferred, what conditions they were invited, what they hoped for and what they found. In order not to encounter any difficulties, we agree not to receive names and images. 

They learned the TRNC from an agency that operates on behalf of our universities in their countries. The agency sent a WhatsApp message to them telling them that there is a university in Cyprus. They immediately contacted and interviewed this agent. The agents has shown them an island on the map and told that the country is in Europe adding that, there are well-known universities, good campus life and dorms. 

They are promised that they would be able to find short-term jobs and financial help both on campus and the labor market for their spending there. Moreover, they added that English is widely spoken in the island ... More importantly, they also stated that it would be very easy for them to find jobs in European conditions after they graduated. 

Zimbabwe has a long, unchanging and increasingly authoritarian leadership. President Robert Mugabe has been in power since 1980 as prime minister and president. Democratic life problems and tensions that tended to clash led to a stagnation and decline of the country's economy. It has led to the spread of educated unemployment in the country and the migration of young people to countries with better jobs as soon as possible, especially to Europe. .. Even if young people are university graduates, their chances of finding a job in their country are very small. 

One of the young people we have seen explains this situation: The streets are full of people who have sell tomatoes. "The other continues: We are Zimbabwe, but at the same time we are Zulu tribe. The oppressed are trapped between South Africa and Zimbabwe as an ethnic community. Like the Punjabi who stayed between India and Pakistan." The other said that these people have found a way to make a life in the "free world " and account for their self by escaping, and that Cyprus (the TRNC) is seen as a gateway to such a life. 

Even if they have an education, every person who can afford their cost of schooling in universities in the TRNC wants to evaluate this opportunity. For this reason, the university has pegged their fees at $5,000, per a year of study. This attraction has caused the number of Zimbabwean students enrolled in universities in the TRNC to reach 4 thousand 800 in the past year. 

"The promises are not right"

We ask young people in Zimbabwe whether they have tested the accuracy of the information given by the agency. " We tried to confirm this information from Google, but with so many different pieces of information, we can not decide which one to rate, " they say. When they came to Cyprus they realized they were misled as " the language used was Turkish and they realized that English was not valid enough to be tried ..." As the days go by, they began to notice that other promises were also false. "They told us we had business opportunities in college or on campus, but we never met such an opportunity ." 

They stray between work and school

They found a large number of African students around the university campus in Lefkosa where they settled and they immediately witnessed that they all had problems with work and money. Those who had to find a short-term job to keep up their lives had to work full-time, thereby weakening their school associations and making it difficult to make a choice between school and work. Most of those who put their education on hold to work full-time were unable to accumulate enough money to return to school due to low wages and high cost of living. According to the young people of Zimbabwe, the tendency to commit suicide appears in such a situation. 

In particular, we recall that some of the African youths have lost their student positions over time, and even the numbers of socially involved people have increased. The young people say they are not experienced enough to make a comment about the general situation. However, they say that those who came in the past years have witnessed "tendency to make money " with promises of employment or similar promises. 

We are reminded that we have recently started to encounter more Africans using luxury or rental cars. " Who are they? Are they also students ? " Young people from Zimbabwe say they are mostly Nigerians. They tell the Nigerians that they leave the differences between themselves and turn them into an effective group and try to establish control.

Can they live their religious and cultural freedoms without restriction? 

They say this area has no problems. The most important problem is that they live in communication with Cypriots because they can not find people who speak English as much as they can on the street.

We are asking about the impressions of Cypriots. They were worried that they might face limited racism before, but they never encountered such a situation. They concluded that the situation here in Europe is more positive for life. "We do not see Cypriots as troublemakers. We are experiencing more of the problems with the Nigerians . " 

After graduating, we wonder what they think they should do. " Somehow they say they do not go to Europe especially to England ." However, Europe is aware of the fact that the Syrian and North African immigrants are in trouble. "After graduating, we have the possibility to move to Europe for upper education," they say. But those who already graduate are trying to create a chance by trying a variety of ways, saying they do not want to go back to their country. 

There is a general belief that African students come from low or middle income families and that their lives in the TRNC are very limited. Recalling this situation, we are asking how much money they plan to spend for the school year. They say they spend $5,000 on enrollment at the university. In this money you have to enroll in the university, stay in a standard room in the country, and have internal transportation costs. Food expenses are out of this payment. The sum of the money they can earn from their families to sustain their food and social life is around $ 150 a month. However, it is not to be said, they remind the people in Cyprus that they are making a promise that they can find part-time jobs in the university or in the market as soon as they go to Cyprus. " Now we understand that there is no such opportunity. Jobs we can find are jobs that are deemed heavy labor and we need to cut our relationship with the school. Moreover, the wages proposed for it are not even enough to live here. " 

We are asking if there are people who have been dismissed from their studies. What do they do and how do they get along? They remind that they are very new in the TRNC and that they do not have as much observations as their competitors. " We hear that in our conversations with our friends, Africans are in this situation. Here, a vicious cycle is happening, young people who want to meet other needs after paying for school money, if they can not find the opportunity to work full-time, but this time the school is disconnected. In the end they are back to the country with the money they earn, and they find themselves in a trapped state . " 

Finally, we ask what they think and what they want to say. They turn heads and bring it back to student agents in Africa. "In Africa, they tell us a lot of exaggeration when they tell us about the possibilities in Cyprus. They say that this is a European country, we have business opportunities as well as learning, and that we can work and meet our needs. They say that a post-school European life is waiting for us, and this deception must be stopped . " 

TRNC authorities say that even if they gave certain figures about the number of African students arriving in the TRNC, it exceeded this number. Moreover, the agencies that the TRNC universities cooperate for promotional purposes continue to give false and exaggerated information about the situation in the TRNC and cause this number to increase every year. The developments show that most of the young people who come to the TRNC think the country is part of Europe and have an opportunity to switch to the mainland. The situation may turn into a desolate land for the TRNC.

Source: Havadis