Corona dashes dreams of Arab scholarship students in Europe

Menna Jameel

Each of them had a dream that they thought they had achieved by reaching a new land other than their home countries, students from many backgrounds and different destinations carried their dreams on their shoulders at the beginning of the school year, hoping that their new destination would be the first step in a future that they worked hard for.

Some of them persevered in order to win a scholarship, and the other was studying in one of the European countries a dream that he did not give up. But everything suddenly collapsed, destroying the Corona virus in the world, shutting down universities and later life, indefinitely, and imposing on them a mysterious reality and an unknown future.

Perhaps it was fortunate for Princess Salama, an Italian student of Arab descent, to receive a European Erasmus scholarship to study at the "Lady Tepe" university in Istanbul, Turkey, while her country has become the focus of Corona's outbreak on the European continent.

But the feelings of the embargo within a foreign country remain in these circumstances stronger than any safety far from home.

Amira told Al Jazeera Net, "I live and fear fills me that I remain trapped in Turkey and cannot return to my country. All I want is to be accompanied by my parents in these circumstances. They are old and their safety matters to me and my presence with them is all that I aspire to now."

Since the worsening conditions in Italy, Amira tried to find a single flight that would transport her from Turkey to the Italian capital, Rome, but all attempts were unsuccessful.

"I contacted the Italian consulate, but they did not give me any clear answer about the possibility of returning to my country. They did not at all try to provide us (we Italians in Turkey) with a flight to our homeland."

Despite the feelings of anger that controlled Princess, she indicated that all airlines are refusing to register Italians on her flights, which increases their suffering.

"We cannot return directly to Italy from Turkey, we must stop in Moscow, Paris, Berlin or Zurich, and those who risked this trip are still stuck in the countries through which they were supposed to cross to Italy."

"I am not safe and I am far from my family. The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs should intervene," she concluded.

unknown fate

On the contrary, it seems that Mohamed Ashraf, an Egyptian student at the Politecnico University in Milan, Italy, had luck when he and his colleague Mohamed El Mokaddam decided to return to Egypt on February 17, to spend a 12-day vacation and return again to Italy.

The two young men did not expect this virus to become a global pandemic, which would destroy the countries that hosted them about six months ago and topple their dreams.

Ashraf told Al Jazeera Net, "My friend convinced me at the beginning that it would not exceed the borders of China and possibly the continent of Asia, but after days of our return to Egypt the situation in Europe worsened, so that we could not send the keys of the apartment in which we reside by mail to our friends in order to transfer our items. And hand it over to the owner. "

He added, "Our house in Lombardy is the first isolated region in Italy, and our purposes are entirely in a house we do not own, and return tickets have been canceled, and the study has become online, we follow from Egypt in light of the negative atmosphere and the unknown fate."

Global flounder

The friends Ashraf and Al-Muqaddam agreed that the world is experiencing a state of confusion over the recent occurrence of this crisis, and they said that the decision taken by all universities and schools to convert education to distance education "is nothing but unplanned confusion."

"Suddenly, the universities transformed the online study system, without preparations or explanatory methods previously tested, as students do not know how to present their projects or exams, and professors, including old people, are not good at dealing with digital means, everything is not planned."

And he added, "My father totally refuses my return to Italy, and therefore I am in a state of self-confusion as well. Should I study during stone periods and pursue distance studies, or stop because I will not return again, and the virus may continue to spread and end on everything?"

While the presenter pointed to the difficulty of studying online for long hours, and the resulting mental and physical fatigue.

He explained that some disciplines, such as engineering, are impossible to fully study remotely and over the Internet, as they require interaction between students and professors, and interaction between students themselves in preparing study projects.

Optimistic look

Fleeing is not a solution in all cases. Ibrahim Mabrouk, who has a "Schiffing" grant funded by the British government to study at Heriot-Watt University, faced the crisis with some cautious optimism.

He assured Al-Jazeera Net that, "With the decision to close universities and complete studies via the Internet, I thought about returning to Egypt, but what prevented me was my thinking about the possibility that Britain could control the virus."

"I was afraid of going back, I do not want to lose the certificate that I worked for in the event that Britain contained Corona, and I could not return to it to stop the traffic, for example, and to close the borders."

In this context, Mabrouk expressed that the British authorities and the administration of the grant were extremely "flexible" in dealing with the ongoing crisis.

He added, "The grant sent an email to its affiliates that it understands the situation and the desire of anyone to return to their country and continue studying online." Noting that the grant continues to pay financial aid to students of 1,800 students, despite the current economic conditions.

According to data released by the United Nations on March 10, the Corona virus affected the regularity of education of nearly 363 million students worldwide, from pre-primary to higher education, including 57.8 million students in higher education.

The virus infected more than 840 thousand people in the world, of whom more than 42 thousand died, mostly in Italy, China, Spain, Iran, France and the United States, and more than one hundred thousand recovered.