Moroccans in Ukraine report ‘very normal’ conditions, as embassy recommends evacuating the country

Maha, a Moroccan dentistry student in Ukraine, is confronted with a difficult, potentially life-altering choice.

Either she flies back home amid rising warfare threats in the European country and sees her student status revoked, or “risk her life and stay in Ukraine.”

Despite telling Hespress EN that “the situation in Ukraine is peaceful,” and that “life is still very normal across many cities,” Maha and her foreign student friends are still worried about a potential escalation, as the threat of “possibly being stuck in a warzone” looms.

The 23-year-old is not alone.

Since this Saturday, the Ukrainian crisis has been causing significant anxiety and stress among the over 8,000 Moroccans studying in the country.

The Moroccan embassy in Kyiv issued a statement on February 12, “advising its nationals to leave the country and only return after the situation stabilizes.”

Unfortunately, both Ukrainian law and Moroccan academic diploma equivalence regulation mandate students in Ukrainian universities stay in the country while studying, “even if classes are remote,” explains Dr. Karim El Guessab, a Moroccan Associate Professor of Social Philosophy in Zaporizhzhia National University, Ukraine.

Dr El Guessab says that “remote schooling was introduced exceptionally after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic,” adding that “although students may be allowed not to attend in-person classes, they are still required to remain on Ukrainian soil.”

The Moroccan academic highlighted that “some faculties in Ukraine have responded favorably to foreign students’ requests to resort to remote schooling,” but that majors play a large role in some faculties’ refusal to adhere to online classes.

“Take medicine, for instance, it is mandatory for med students to attend practical in-person courses, and can’t forgo practice and only base their training on theory,” adds El Guessab in a statement to Hespress EN.

Medical studies in Ukraine are among the most popular majors for Moroccan students in the country, which complicates their case.

Although various international diplomatic and intelligence actors are warning of “military attacks and a possible Russian attack on Ukraine,” Moroccans on the ground in the country’s largest cities are describing “a stable, peaceful and normal life.”

“Administrations, hospitals, airports, and restaurants are open, people are living their lives normally, there is no curfew or sirens, and although alert, Ukrainians themselves are quite serene about the situation,” says Nabil L, a 25-year-old Moroccan med student in Lviv.

In a statement to Hespress EN, Moroccan architecture major Amine Taouil says that “what we are seeing in the media is definitely exaggerated,” adding that “no exceptional military or police presence is deployed, even in cities along the border with Russia.”

Amine lives in Kharkiv, a city near the Russia-Ukraine border.

Most of the anxiety some Moroccans are experiencing when it comes to the Ukrainian crisis “is fueled by worried parents back in Morocco, who see these exaggerated reports on TV, and call for their children to come back home.”

“It is normal for Moroccan diplomacy to worry about its nationals in the country, but much of the stress is emanating from people who are not in Ukraine, but rather seeing the European country through the media’s perspective,” says our source.

Taouil told Hespress EN that “Moroccans who have been here for long are very comfortable and not worried, whereas most of those who want to leave are younger and have not been in Ukraine for long.”

The situation of Moroccan students in Ukraine is therefore much more complicated than what meets the eye.

Established Moroccans in the country, who “have lived through the tumultuous 2014 Ukraine crisis and came out of it unscathed” are maintaining that despite an everlasting risk, the situation “is not as bad, rather normal and peaceful.”

But to Maha’s parents, their 20-year-old daughter “is in grave danger,” and should be able to come back, even if that means momentarily interrupting her academic journey.