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DUBAI: In January this year, 19-year-old Amira Souhail al-Halabi from Akkar, Lebanon, left her family and her country to start life as a first-year medicine student at a university in Ivano-Frankivsk, western Ukraine. Gave. Gave.

For al-Halabi and his brother, third-year engineering students at another Ukrainian university, being away from Lebanon was a great relief. Despite its many political and economic problems, Ukraine seemed a world away from power cuts, fuel shortages, corruption and domestic problems.

“I decided to study in Ukraine because the conditions there were relatively better and the expenses were manageable,” she told Arab News on Wednesday from a hotel in Krakow, Poland.

The siblings’ hopes of a stable life in a foreign country and a good education were dashed, however, when Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24 following rising tensions.

An estimated 10,000 students from the Arab world, including about 1,300 Lebanese people, were studying in Ukraine before the invasion, which was part of a 760,000-strong population of international students. Many of them have sought help by posting video footage online.

Among the Arab countries, Morocco sent the largest number of students at around 8,000, followed by Egypt with over 3,000 students.

Foreign students in Ukraine had a low cost of living and, in many cases, relative security compared to their own countries. Ukrainian universities also have a strong reputation for medical courses and affordable tuition.

But now families from Morocco to India and from Nigeria to Iraq are desperately appealing to their governments for help in getting their sons and daughters out of the war-torn country. African students are sharing their experiences online using the hashtag #AfricansinUkraine.

At least two students – one from India and the other from Algeria – have been killed in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, which saw the heaviest shelling of the war on Monday.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib said the government was planning to help civilians stranded in Ukraine. He said the planes would be sent to Poland and Romania at a “date to be announced later”.

Others, such as Egypt, have started operating repatriation flights from neighboring countries. Thirty Egyptian students have returned so far. For Tunisia, which does not have an embassy in Ukraine, getting in touch with its 1,700 citizens is complicated.

Officials said they are in touch with international organizations such as the Red Cross to arrange for the repatriation of Tunisian citizens. “As soon as we have a complete list of Tunisian returnees, we will start operations,” Mohamed Trabelsi, a foreign ministry official, told AFP.

Authorities in Algeria, who have asked their 1,000 citizens in Ukraine not to leave, told them to stay indoors and only venture out “in case of emergency”.

The Lebanese student al-Halabi said she and her brother began looking for a way out of Ukraine after hearing about the attack. He described the exodus at 10 Lebanon’s Ivano-Frankivsk Medical University as a harrowing experience.

It took the group several days to reach the Polish border, he said: “We walked more than 40 kilometers after the taxi left us. Nobody helped us. We went without food or enough water for three to four days. it was very cold. We went through snow and rain.

“Nobody gave us any evacuation plan, so we decided to do it on our own. We were all together until we reached the Polish border, when we parted ways. Some of us went ahead while some were left behind.”

The United Nations has said more than a million people have fled Ukraine in a week since Russia’s invasion, adding that millions more are likely to die unless the conflict ends immediately.

UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said on Thursday: “In just seven days we have seen one million refugees fleeing Ukraine to neighboring countries.”

Many Arabs, waiting in vain to start a new life in the West, are comparing their fate with that of Ukrainians, to whom European states have now opened their arms.

Activists and cartoonists have compared the Western response to the refugee crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the way Europe sought to hold back Syrians and other refugees in 2015.

Last year, 3,800 Syrians in Bulgaria sought protection and 1,850 were granted refugee or humanitarian status. Poland’s government, which has faced severe criticism for using force to stop migrants from Belarus, has welcomed new arrivals from Ukraine.

In Hungary, which erected a barrier along its southern border to prevent a repeat of the 2015 influx of people from the Middle East and Asia, the arrival of refugees from Ukraine supported the simultaneous support of proposals for transportation, housing, clothing and a vast did. food flow.

Some Western journalists and officials have been criticized for suggesting that the crisis in Ukraine is different from that in Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan, because Europeans can better identify with the victims of the Russian invasion.

Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Kirill Petkov described Ukrainians as intelligent, educated and highly qualified, saying, “We don’t have the refugee wave that we’re used to, and we don’t know what to do with people with an obscure past.”

“These are the Europeans whose airports have just been bombed, who are under fire.”

While some Arab refugees in northern Syria, Lebanon and Jordan told Reuters that countries closer to home are responsible for their plight, it will be difficult to remove the notion of double standards in European approaches to war fleeing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. .

Then there is the issue of racist behavior by Ukrainian security forces and border officials. Al-Halabi said students like him at the border terminal were the first to see such behavior.

Many of his Arab friends, especially Moroccans and Egyptians, and other foreigners experienced prejudice and even violence. Khalid, a student from Lebanon, stole his phone as he crossed the border.

“They (Ukrainian security) hit us, they cursed us and defame us,” she said. “He said one sentence still stuck in my mind: ‘No black people allowed in here.’ We were also pushed by the police.

As a Lebanese citizen familiar with life’s adversities, al-Halabi said, she can understand what Ukrainians are going through. “Still, this is not the way to treat people,” she said. “No matter what happens, you need to treat people well.”

In response to these allegations, Alina Vashchenko, a Ukrainian living in Paris, said she “apologizes” for the behavior that non-Ukrainians have experienced.

“There is no excuse for this situation. But I want people to know that not everyone is bad,” she told Arab News.

“I am Ukrainian and I have many friends who are helping (foreigners). For example, my friends in Poland have tried to go to the Moroccan embassy for help. My family is ready to help anyone who needs help.”

On Wednesday, al-Halabi was preparing to travel from Krakow to Warsaw, where he hopes to catch a flight to Beirut.

He and his brother now only want to return to Lebanon and feel safe. “I don’t know yet what I’ll do, but I’m glad I’m going back to Lebanon now,” she said. “I don’t think I would want to go back to Ukraine even after this war.”

,With inputs from AFP and Reuters,