Majority of foreign students coming to the TRNC are African students - Report

The Center for Immigration, Identity and Public Studies (CMIRS) has published its work on foreign students in the island. 

The Center's representative, Mine Yücel made the presentation in the KTÖS meeting hall on Tuesday. 

Yücel stated that the study was carried out through in-depth interviews with civil society and police officials as well as student representatives from different countries. 

According to the TRNC 2020 Statistical Yearbook figures, while the total number of university students in the northern part of Cyprus is 103,108 in the 2020-21 academic year, Yucel stated that 43,118 of them are third-country nationals. He pointed out that it was through /relatives/acquaintances or with the help of managers/intermediaries who were in their country or had been a student there before. 

Expressing that the majority of foreign students coming to the country are African students, Yücel stated that African students are generally targeted at students who are too poor to go to Europe or America.  

Expressing that these students usually come here by spending all their family savings, and the majority of them aim to both study and earn money by relying on the job opportunities promised by the managers, Yücel emphasized that some of the students who encounter a different reality experience great difficulties.

Emphasizing that students are important to this country and that they are human beings, Yücel emphasized what needs to be done.

Yücel listed some of the steps to be taken as follows: 

“Students are not just people who bring money but need not have any rights. It should be accepted that these people we invite here to live and spend money in this country also have rights and should be able to access information about these rights in a language they can understand. If we really think that we are a university island, we must fulfill the requirements and work so that people who come to this island for university find a real education and a hospitable country. It should be our priority to empathize with the experiences of foreign students. In order to increase the trust of foreign students in government institutions, there is a need for staff who speak English and try to find solutions to their problems without dismissing them. For this, personnel training is important. 

Everyone needs to be informed about what students are going through in this country and work together to solve it. If the economy of this country owes a lot to the students, it is also a necessity of the economic mind that the students leave here satisfied. This order established by universities in the country is exploited by managers and human traffickers.  

Changing this order is also the responsibility of universities, YODAK and state institutions. The prevention of human trafficking will also prevent foreigners from being involved in crime, by not allowing those who are not really students but who come to the country to commit crimes. Racism and hate speech based on race should be prevented and made a crime. The laws of the country when students enter the country, They should be informed in a language they can understand on issues such as work etc. and especially the contact numbers where they can get help should be given to them. While this is a matter that should be under the responsibility of universities, it can also be carried out in the form of giving informational brochures by the persons in charge of passport control upon entry to the country. It is necessary to control the working conditions of foreigners and to prevent exploitation. This is a precaution that applies not only to foreign students, but also to all foreign employees working in our country, many of whom are victims of human trafficking. It is necessary to control the working conditions of foreigners and to prevent exploitation.  

This is a precaution that applies not only to foreign students, but also to all foreign employees working in our country, many of whom are victims of human trafficking. It is necessary to control the working conditions of foreigners and to prevent exploitation. This is a precaution that applies not only to foreign students, but also to all foreign employees working in our country, many of whom are victims of human trafficking.

Source: Yeniduzen