Turkish Cypriots falsely accuse international students of being responsible for the increase of coronavirus cases in the TRNC

On Monday, March, 1, there was news about 27 students living in a university dormitory in Haspolat, North Cyprus that tested positive for coronavirus. The news generated a lot of reactions from citizens and even used as a political tool by some locals who claimed that international students were responsible for the increase in the number of coronavirus cases in the country.... This is totally false.

Following news of the coronavirus cases, locals and the media were quick to make it an issue that stereotype and target international students, especially Nigerians as being responsible for the increase in the number of cases.  

It is absolutely absurd for locals to turn on international students, blaming them and accusing them of being responsible for the increasing number of cases in the country. 

To come out on social media, news media to discriminate against international students, Africans or Nigerians is a new time low for a community that brags or see itself as a student friendly society.

For the avoidance of doubt, every students who arrive the country are taken into isolation center after having a PCR test. These students stay between 10-14 days in isolation depending on their country of origin and are only released after a second PCR test confirm that they don't have the virus. With such measures in place, anyone allowed to leave isolation center must have fulfilled every necessary requirements laid out by the government. This systematically rules out the possibility that international students who just arrived the island are responsible for the spread in virus cases.

According to subsequent report made by the Ministry of Health, the cases involved students who have been residing in the TRNC for at least three months. This means one person must have contracted the virus somehow and then passed it to other students living in the same space. This is only an isolated case, not like it's some kind of recurrence.

If anyone is in doubt and seek the truth with all fairness, he/she should visit the pandemic hospital in Lefkosa or the numerous isolation centers around the country to find out where the majority of positive cases come from.

To our understanding, international students living in the country are law abiding and fully complied with all government rules and measures put in place to curb the spread of the virus since the beginning of the pandemic despite the huge gap experienced in the passing of such information which is mainly in Turkish language.

At this point, we urge the government to call to order its citizens and the media and to be transparent in the passing of information such that it portray the reality on ground and not make a segment of the society a scape goat just because of an isolated case.

We also urge all international students in the country to be law abiding, obey government rules and measures, especially on the use of mask in public places, observe social distancing and self isolate during the period of curfew.