Education Island
“Here you are a free man, but in prison at the same time”
“So you are basically trapped and the only place you can go to is back to your country.”
“As a black you work like a slave.”
“The view of the Mediterranean Sea from the sky was glorious. But I couldn’t stop thinking about the people whose lives had been lost in the same waters.
Only the lucky ones made it across.”
Education Island
In the tiny self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) over 100,000 mostly international students are currently enrolled in a total of 20 universities, hence its nickname ‘Education Island’. The revenues from these students, of which as many as 20,000 come from African countries, are the backbone of the economy of this internationally unrecognised piece of land.
Many of the young Africans were brought to the island by malicious agents advertising free scholarships for ‘studying in Europe’. Yet, this is not Europe.
While they struggle to pay tuition fees snd cover the high costs of living, many face racism, economic hardship and a general feeling of being stuck.
When going back home is not an option and the gates to Europe are closed, life on a ‘no man’s island’ often gets tough.
The project was supported + published by the #blueborder reporting project of Cafe Babel. There is an English text available by Kenyan writer Maureen Murori.