Las familias de 8.000 universitarios marroquíes en Ucrania piden su repatriación

Relatives of the Moroccan university students in Ukraine, some 8,000 although some have already returned to their country, gathered on Friday in front of the Foreign Ministry headquarters in Rabat to ask for their repatriation to be facilitated, while Morocco asks them to go to the borders with Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania, where it has established consular cells to welcome them.

Dozens of mothers and fathers of the young people signed a communiqué in which they explained their demands and began a list of names and details of their children to hand them over to the ministry, while two of their representatives went to the department to talk to the authorities.

The families are asking the Moroccan government to provide "sufficient flights to evacuate all these students" from the war-torn country or, failing that, land transport to airports in neighbouring countries, according to the draft communiqué.

The Moroccan student community is among the largest of foreign university students in Ukraine, numbering around 8,000 young people, mainly studying medicine, pharmacy and civil engineering in cities such as Kiev, Odessa and Kharkov, according to 2020 data from the Ukrainian Ministry of Education.

"My son is in Odessa, where he has been studying civil engineering for two years. He managed to reach the border with Romania but they have not yet been allowed to enter (...). We ask the state to intervene to repatriate our children", Ali Zaim told Efe.

Amina A. called for "practical and urgent solutions" such as providing food and security guidance to the blocked students in the most tense areas.

Around 3,000 Moroccans living in Ukraine, including students, have already returned to Morocco, which has set up consular cells at border crossings with Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia to welcome them. This very morning, they explained, a group of six students arrived at the border with Romania, according to diplomatic sources.

In the same vein, the embassy of the Maghreb country in Kiev today issued a note in which it claims to have coordinated with neighbouring countries to allow "safe" access to their territories for Moroccans who want to leave Ukraine and asks them to go to the border crossings with those countries.

The communiqué advises Moroccans who have chosen to stay in Ukraine not to leave their homes except for extreme reasons, to carry their identity documents with them at all times and to maintain continuous contact with the diplomatic legation.

Morocco issued a recommendation on 12 February to all its nationals to leave Ukraine and provided them with five flights on which around 850 people returned.

Several of the relatives gathered today in front of the Foreign Ministry explained to Efe that the reason why their children remained in Ukraine despite Morocco's recommendations is that the Ukrainian universities were forcing them to attend courses and threatening to expel them if they stopped attending.

Moroccan government spokesman Mustapha Baitas told a press conference yesterday that the Moroccan embassy in Kiev, where 28 diplomats work, has received 794 calls from trapped citizens since the 14th of this month and that the consulate is providing them with guidance. As of today, the Moroccan embassy remains open.