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Nigerian students who fled war in Ukraine are being told to leave Europe

Overseas students in Ukraine were granted a two-year stay in the EU when Russia invaded. Now their time is running out

Nigerian students who fled war in Ukraine are being told to leave Europe
Nigerian students, who just got evacuated from Ukraine amidst the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, disembark from a chartered plane after landing at the Nnamdi Azikwe Airport Abuja, Nigeria on March 4, 2022. | Kola SULAIMON / AFP
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Olabisi* was out to get groceries during her post-graduate clinical rotations at the Ivano-Frankivsk National Medical University in western Ukraine on the morning of 24 February 2022 when she heard loud bangs. Then came breaking news alerts: Russia was invading Ukraine. She rushed home to pack a few belongings.

“In the course of moving, I lost my certificates and even my passport,” she said.

She headed towards the border between Ukraine and Romania with hundreds of thousands of others. Thankfully, with her Ukrainian ID card, she was allowed passage. From Romania, she travelled by train to the Netherlands, along with other students whose lives had just been uprooted.