The Nigerian government has warned against “unscrupulous” agents luring prospective students to Northern Cyprus with false claims, following a spate of stranded students and reports of trafficking in the region.
The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a de facto state, has a population of approximately 265,000 people and is just over 3,000 km² in size (in comparison, Wales is 20,779 km²). Despite its small size, there are over 20 private universities operating in the region and an estimated 50,000 foreign students.
The Nigerian government said in a statement on October 17 that it had become aware of “unscruplous elements parading themselves as agents and deceiving unsuspecting young Nigerians into believing that Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus provides easy access to ‘greener pastures’”.
As a result, it claims there has been “an unprecedented increase in the consular cases of stranded young Nigerians in TRNC”.
“Universities for a long time now have a policy of hiring agents that are completely unregulated,” said Ashraf Saleem, a Syrian student and executive head at student advocacy group VOIS Cyprus.
“Universities for a long time now have a policy of hiring agents that are completely unregulated”
Students mainly come from Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East, attracted by courses taught in English for a comparatively low cost. But some are promised more than this by the agents who recruit them.
“It can be simple things like: ‘you can easily find a job here to finance yourself’ when that is not true, the job market here is very very hard. Or they can say, ‘you can easily get a 100 percent scholarship’,” said Saleem. “And then to more extreme things like, ‘North Cyprus is actually part of the EU’.”
In some cases, traffickers posing as agents have also been found to ‘recruit’ students to universities in the region, only to force them into prostitution when they arrive. Human Rights Platform, an NGO based in the region, told The PIE News earlier this year that there were an estimated 20,000 lapsed student visas.
“They entered as students. However, at some point, they didn’t attend their classes, they didn’t renew their residency permits. They disappeared,” said Fezile Osum, anti-trafficking and refugee rights program coordinator at Human Rights Platform, speaking to The PIE in August.
In September, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission said it “received petitions on regular basis from Nigerians, especially parents whose children had been victims in one way or the other in Northern Cyprus” and shared a list of 16 “unresolved” deaths of Nigerians in the region since 2016.
In a letter published on September 9, the Turkish ambassador to Nigeria responded, “Despite unlawful and inhumane isolation imposed on the TRNC, the quality of the Turkish Cypriot universities remains high and the TRNC Government is doing the utmost to keep it as such.
“The TRNC authorities are taking the recent accusations very seriously and preparing to take the necessary precautions.
“Nigerian citizens are not only victims, but also perpetrators of crimes committed in the TRNC”.
International students also told The PIE that the rising cost of living in the region has forced students into cramped housing and even left some homeless.
“After Covid, things started to be tough,” said Rictus Franck, an undergraduate student from Cameroon and a member of the Shelter Student’s Refuge organisation. He explained that he had seen cases where eight students were living in a two-bedroom apartment.
“You’re going to come across at least one landlord who says they don’t rent to certain nationalities”
International students also say they face racism and xenophobia in the region, including in the housing sector.
“If you come here and search for a house… you’re going to come across at least one landlord who says they don’t rent to certain nationalities or ethnicities for example, like black students,” said Saleem.
Franck and Saleem agree that the issues in the region leave some students feeling hopeless.
“Some begin to just get depressed and later on find themselves going back to Africa,” said Franck. “Some begin to fall into fraudulent activities here and others even find themselves going to the South [of Cyprus]… and access refugee status.”
The PIE contacted the TRNC authorities and several universities in the region for comment but received no response at the time of publication.
