“My future, my life, everything is lost.” Chakib swallows his words and speaks without taking a breath. Sitting in the premises of the Maison des Camerounais de France, in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, this 23-year-old Algerian student says he arrived in France in early April, after fleeing the war in Ukraine.
He was studying maritime in Odessa, a port city on the shores of the Black Sea, to become a deck officer, his “dream”. “I had a permanent residence there, friends, I learned to speak the languagehe says wistfully. I left everything overnight, I only took my papers.”
It was 6 a.m. on February 24 when he learned that war had broken out. After a journey of several days through Ukraine in a rental car, he reached Poland then went to Paris by bus. When he reached the French capital, it was with a one-month temporary residence permit (APS) in his pocket. “It expires tomorrow. The prefecture continues to tell me to wait and that they will call me, but still nothing”, he laments, before slipping into Russian a proverb that he translates into French: “My life is zero multiplied by zero”.
Since March 4, the European Union has granted temporary protection for six months to people who have fled Ukraine. Beneficiaries receive an allowance, have the right to work, to have medical care, assistance with housing and the schooling of their children. But only Ukrainian nationals can get it.
Refugees of foreign nationality must prove that they are unable to return to their country of origin “in safe and sustainable conditions” or be married to a Ukrainian to benefit from it. In France, the Ministry of the Interior has instructed the prefectures to examine these situations individually, “which raises fears of unequal treatment from one department to another”explains the French Coordination for the Right of Asylum (CFDA) in a press release.
Contacted by France 24, the Ministry of the Interior clarified: if a third-country national is not eligible for temporary protection, he is entitled to return to his country of origin. However, in the European Union, other countries have chosen to adapt the established framework and welcome all people fleeing Ukraine without distinction of nationality, such as Portugal and Spain.
For many students, the only solution to stay in France is therefore to obtain a student visa. “I contacted the universities of Nice, Marseille, Le Havre, to register, but they all told me that they did not know what to do”, resumes Chakib.
“My goal is not to stay in France forever, but to finish my studies. Why don’t they let me do that?”
Chakib, Algerian studentat franceinfo
“The problem is no longer registration, because the universities are very open and supportive. The problem is temporary protection, without which students cannot have a Crous scholarship or accommodation”explains to the Echoes the director of the Union of Exiled Students.
In addition to this uncertainty about their future, students have to deal with a daily routine. “When I left Ukraine, I took the bare minimum. My papers, some clothes, and left the rest behind”, says Franklin, a Cameroonian student in electromechanics at the University of Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine. Arrived in Paris on March 22, the young man obtained a temporary residence permit which expired at the end of April. Since then, he has been waiting for a possible renewal of the document.
In the evening, he sleeps in Drancy (Seine-Saint-Denis), in a room found by an association. For the rest, food, transport, Franklin continues: “I buy everything myself, I live on my savings from Ukraine.” He admits having “low morale”.
“Ukrainians have the right to everything, transport, housing, health… There is nothing for non-Ukrainians.”
Franklin, Cameroonian studentat franceinfo
Franklin contacted the Cameroon Embassy, but claims to have received no help. “If France allows me to stay, I will be very happy, because having to leave the territory scares me”, he slips.
At his side, Saida, 30, is in an even more complicated situation. A Moroccan architecture student, she left Kharkiv on February 28. During her long trip to France, her suitcase was stolen in Hungary. “I lost a lot of valuables, my papers, my university registration, my residence permit”, she says. All he has left is his passport. “It’s very complicated to take steps in France without these documents, my situation is very difficult”
While waiting for her situation to be resolved, Saida is staying with associations in hotels or with volunteers, but hopes to be able to find permanent accommodation soon. “I am motivated to find a solution and continue my studies in France. I do not want to return to Morocco.”